Stitches to Stone
by Guardian of Balance
Summary: After Amy discovers Sonic and Sally's rekindled romance, she's left hurt and lost. Everything she accomplished was done to be Sonic's future partner and wife. But as she begins having visions of the future, and pulling people into it, she realizes she has bigger problems on her hands. What does this have to do with Mercia and it's tumultuous future?
1. Chapter 1

Amy was bored. That much she knew for certain.

Oh it was wonderful that she'd been invited along with the rest of the Freedom Fighters to the United Federation to celebrate the world coming back together. It was great that she had gotten to dress up for a formal function for the first time in forever (if ever, she'd never been invited to anything like this as far as she could recall). Heck, she was even happy for the food, what little of it that she ate.

But then...

She was slumped in her chair, nursing some punch she'd grabbed for herself about half an hour ago. Her eyes were half closed in an uncharacteristic combination of boredom and acceptance.

"I don't have anyone to talk to..." she thought to herself, "No one even really knows who I am."

She thought back to when she first came to the party... or rather "gala" as Sally kept pushing.

"Amy, it's going to be a bit different than the parties we've had in the Acorn Kingdom," she had warned, "It's going to be much more formal. Are you sure you want to go?"

"Of course I'll go!" Amy had cried, "I am every bit as grown-up and well behaved as everyone else."

"That's not what I'm saying, Amy," Sally had tried again, "Big and Cream are staying behind, I'm just worried you'll get bored at the gala..."

"I'll be fine!" Amy rolled her eyes while crossing her arms, "I'm mature, cute and engaging! Even if you all split up and do your own thing I'll be fine! Just watch. I'll be the belle of the ball before you know it."

Sally had given a pained smile but conceded the point. Amy had given her own smug smile and gone back to picking out a dress for the occasion. When the night finally came, she excitedly donned lavender knee length dress that swished around playfully when she moved. It had white lace trimming on the hem but that was where the embellishment ended. It cinched comfortably around her waist and firmly hugged her shoulders in a capped shoulder style leaving her back exposed. When she'd bought it, she felt it just oozed playfulness. Not totally innocent but still fun and just her personality. She even found a pair of ivory heels to match. Not particularly high but still grown up and even a little retro.

Amy's first move had been to engage with other people immediately after she'd been politely introduced by Sally. What she discovered, however, was that engaging the older human officials would be much harder than it seemed. For every official she was introduced to politely asked her two or three questions about herself before removing themselves politely from her conversation to engage with one of her other friends. Amy was quickly annoyed by this and decided a different tactic, by trying to engage people from outside of her group.

This, she found, was even harder than being introduced by royalty. No one engaged her for more than a moment to hear her name before moving on to conversations they were already in. One human even had the nerve to tell her to grab herself some punch and let the adults talk. She had to be pulled away by Sally before she caused a scene.

"Amy please, I know it was rude, but he was talking to someone else..."

"But he said...!"

"I know what he said Amy," Sally sternly chided, "But that doesn't mean you can just butt into his conversations like that. You represent the Acorn Kingdom. Just like Sonic, Tails and me."

"But I'm..."

"Amy please," Sally shot her a look of both stern disappointment and pity, "I warned you that this was going to be different. I'm sorry I couldn't really explain it as well, but now I hope you understand a bit better. This isn't... just celebrating the victory over Eggman. This is a Gala of the State. This is a diplomat's mixer."

Amy still shook with rage but the stubborn set in her jaw was starting to make way for resignation, "They just need to give me a chance and..."

Amy couldn't continue but Sally sighed in understanding, "You're more than welcome to stay, Amy but... just try to stay as close to the group as you can, okay? We'll help you through it."

She nodded at that but as the night wore on her friends began to separate. She tried to stay close to Sonic, who would engage her as much as possible. Still, he stayed by Sally's side who continued to engage with the diplomats in boring conversation with the King unless they were talking to Sonic who would take his attention away from her. She stayed for about an hour like this before she went in search of Bunnie. She left that when she found Bunnie and Antoine in a corner staring into each other's eyes. She quickly left to find Tails. He was with Rotor, talking to a bunch of men and women near the food table. When she approached she realized that they were speaking about... something. She couldn't really tell what it was but when Rotor began to speak on the subject she took that as her cue to leave. Rotor was shy but once he got talking that would be it.

So here she sat in her little corner of the gala, with her same drink she had gotten, consumed in her own self pity of not being as interesting as Sonic, as engaging as Sally, or as smart and witty as Tails and Rotor. She stared angrily down at her drink before shoving it away and whispering, "I wish I at least had one person to talk to! Bunnie and Antoine have each other and I'm just sitting here bored with nothing to do!"

She looked over at her fellow Freedom Fighters with no small amount of resentment. Antoine and Bunnie were waltzing together in the center of the room, whispering sweet nothings to each other as newly weds were wont to do. Rotor was with Tails, Uncle Chuck, and Professor Pickle speaking with who Amy had to guess were engineers or something from the animated way Rotor was speaking. She was even beginning to feel angry with Cream and Big, who had volunteered to stay on Sky Patrol together to pass the time. Big had not wanted to go to the party so Cream decided to stay and keep him company since everyone else was going. Nicole had decided to do the same, having a little party of their own. Amy growled a bit at her own foolishness at thinking she would have fun at this party.

"Gala," she corrected herself with a snort of bemusement.

What made her most forlorn, however, was where Sonic and Sally were. Sonic was with Sally, and her father who were speaking with the President of the UF and his wife. The group laughed together at something Sonic had said and more people began to congregate around them.

"You'd think Sonic would at least stick by my side," she thought, holding her head in her hands, "I'm always by his side, why isn't he on mine now?"

It was this thought that made her think of the old timeline.

While memories of the time were fading it was hard to let go of a few distinct ones. One of which was how close Sonic and Sally had been before and how they'd been dating before. At the time she was ok with it, as long as the relationship was temporary and she had her chance at Sonic in the end but...

...What was the deal now? Were they together? If they were, was it serious? Now that they had time to relax and analyse, what conclusion would they come to and where would that leave Amy?

A part of her wanted to forget about it. That part urged her that it wasn't important who Sonic was with now. What was important was that Sonic was happy and that she will someday be happy with him too. That the best thing to do would be for her to let it go for the time being and show that she was okay with Sonic having a life away from her. She clung to that hope on a daily basis, even as her heart clenched when she saw them holding hands or making goo-goo eyes at each other. Regardless of how sure she was about getting her chance with Sonic... she was jealous of what the two were having now.

It flared into an all out inferno when Sonic held out his hand to dance with Sally. Time seemed to freeze for Amy as Sally gracefully took his hand and made her way to the dance floor with him. Was it possible for ice to burn? That's what it certainly felt like as Sonic gently led Sally through the steps so gracefully that Amy had to wonder if he hadn't practiced beforehand. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw the two of them laughing at something Sonic had said. But the moment slowed the dance down to gaze into Sally's deep blue eyes...was the moment Amy decided she didn't need to see the rest of the dance. She turned away...

... And ran into a young human girl. Amy gave a little 'oomph' before she pulled back to see the girl. She was taller than Amy, but then she was a human so that was to be expected, even if she looked about Amy's age. She had a pale complexion and chin length blonde hair with a little red barrette pulling her bangs to the left. Her eyes were a striking cerulean blue the held surprise but no ill will even as Amy bounced off of her own red sun dress.

"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!" The girl cried out with a smile, "I really gotta watch where I'm going..."

Amy took this opportunity to push the burning, broken pieces of her heart aside. She could cry later. At this point, it would be stupid and immature to start crying in front of a total stranger over Sonic, "No it's fine. I ran into you. I'm just a bit distracted right now."

The girl rolled her eyes, "Bored out of your mind too?"

Amy gave a small twitch of her lip before sighing, "Something like that."

The girl gave a little laugh before she held out her hand, "I'm Hope, fellow bored party goer."

Amy smiled and held out her own gloved hand, "I'm Amy... I like your dress!"

Hope sighed, "I don't really like it, but Rouge told me if I was going to the party I at least had to look like a girl. Give me a shirt and a pair of overalls any day. Your dress is nice though."

That gave Amy pause. It was a welcome distraction so she clung to it before asking, "Wait, Rouge?"

"Ya?"

"Rouge the Bat. You know her?" Amy asked incredulously.

"Ya I work with Team Dark a lot. I'm part of the engineering team that works with them," Hope explained.

"You're an engineer? How old are you?" Amy asked incredulously.

"I'm twelve and a half thank you very much," Hope placed a hand on her hip and smirking, "And I'm the one who keeps Omega up to date and Shadow's shoes running in perfect condition. I develop all their gadgets for use _and _I help them to test them out! And how old are you, Ms Freedom Fighter?"

Amy blinked before giving a wry chuckled, "I turn fifteen in a few months actually. I feel kind of bad for being mad at the other people at this party now. They were saying the exact same things I was."

Hope rolled her eyes, "Ya well... they think I'm here with my dad. He's the Commander of the GUN. Everyone thinks that that's the only reason I got the job though. I mean, what other twelve year old is an engineer, you know?"

Amy gave a small laugh, "I'll have to introduce you to Tails later. He and Rotor are our tech guys. He's only ten though, so I hope you don't mind that much. Still, I don't see how that makes it easier to deal with Rouge of all people."

"She's...hard to get used to," Hope conceded, "But she's nice when she wants to be. She's great with Shadow and Omega!"

Amy had a small flash back to the time when Team Dark was fighting with her team to obtain a Sol Emerald... then again that hadn't happened anymore so could she really hold that against Rouge anymore?

"Ya, I've seen them in a fight before," Amy smiled, "They work really well together!"

"Oh ya, we're really..."

"Excuse me..."

Hope turned to face the human man behind her, holding a card in his hand.

"Is this yours? It was on the floor beside you and I don't want you to lose it."

Hope looked at the card in confusion but Amy recognized it immediately, "OH thanks so much! I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost it!"

The man looked to Amy and handed the card to her with a nod and a murmured, "Good evening." He left as Amy was placing the card in her lavender clutch.

"You brought a deck of cards with you?" Hope asked teasingly, "You came prepared and you didn't ask anyone to play with you?"

Amy blushed, "Well... they're not really playing cards. They're tarot cards."

"Whoa, no way, you believe in that?" Hope gave a small smirk, "When'd you get them?"

Amy had to think back a moment, "A... really long time ago. I can't remember not having them really."

"Cool!" Hope gave a small embarrassed smile before asking, "Would you mind doing a reading for me?"

Amy smiled before nodding and looking around for a place to sit. She gestured back towards her original seat and sat. She then began to gently shuffle the deck.

"When I'm shuffling think of a question you'd like answered. When you have it, just cut the deck with that question in mind," Amy explained, "Then I'll draw three cards and it'll tell you all about your question."

Hope nodded in understanding then cut the deck when Amy handed it to her. Amy placed them back together and flipped the cards over.

She didn't even see what she drew. Amy felt as though she was being pulled back. Her vision faded to black then brightened just as quickly to white. When her vision cleared up, she was at the same table but Hope and her cards were missing.

"What the...?" she slowly got up from the table before looking around, "Did I... pass out?"

That didn't feel right. If she'd passed out, she would have hoped her new companion would have done something other than steal her cards and run away.

"So I'm asleep?"

She'd heard of lucid dreaming but then why was she asleep?

"A vision?" she thought finally, "Maybe... but I've never had one before. Not like this..."

She took in the room a moment before giving a resigned sigh, "I better go check it out. Maybe I'll find a way back through here."

Even as she put on a brave face, she couldn't help the unnerving gnawing feeling in her gut. As she walked past the humans in the crowd, she noticed that no one seemed to pay any attention to her. Finally, after about ten minutes of searching Amy found a familiar face. Just at her 2 o'clock was Rouge dressed to the nines in a sultry sleeveless red gown that hugged her curves all the way down the slit that went up to mid thigh. Amy gave a sigh of relief, even if she had to deal with a little teasing from Rouge, she could at least figure out what had happened.

"Hey Rouge. Thank Goodness you're here! What's going on...?"

Rouge's ears didn't even twitch. Amy realized she was deep in conversation with someone else. Amy didn't see who, all she saw was Rouge ignoring her greeting.

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed as she reached her hand out, "Just because you don't like me doesn't mean you have to be so rude!"

However, when Amy set her hand down on Rouge's shoulder, it went right through.

Amy gave a small squeak and took several steps back. Her hands clasped together and flew to her mouth to cover her surprise. In her panic she flew past three more humans as though she was a ghost.

"This is a vision..."

Amy hovered around Rouge for a moment before realizing who she was talking to, "Hope?!"

But it wasn't really Hope, not anymore. She'd gone from the 12 year old little girl that she'd met not 15 minutes prior to the young woman towering over Rouge. She was tall, even for a human girl now. Rather than the sweeping gowns and formal wear everyone else was wearing she wore a doctor's coat over slacks and a violet blouse. She didn't wear any make up or jewelry but she seemed to make the room glow regardless.

It was then that Amy began to pay attention to her conversation with Rouge.

"...Still don't know how you put up with all that. That sort of thing just goes right over my head."

Hope chuckled before commenting, "That's what I'm here for, Rouge. Someone's gotta do it. Where's Omega and Shadow?"

Rouge snorted but stopped short of answering Hope, "Commander Towers!" she greeted.

Hope had a confused look on her face before spinning around to face an older gentleman. He was in his 60's pushing into 70's at least. His hair was mostly white but it still held small traces of black and grey. His eyes were... mismatched? One was brown the other blue, but both held a deep pride and love for the young woman in front of him.

"Dad!" Hope cried out and flung her arms around him. The man calmly but firmly did the same.

"Hey kiddo," he murmured, "Congratulations on the Kintobor Progressive. I'm so proud of you..."

Hope beamed back at him, "Thanks dad! Just think, this time next year the nanites will be at full capacity and we'll never have to worry about construction costs or damages ever again!"

The Commander gave a small wry smile, "Would that that had come several years earlier. God knows this city has seen it's fair share of destruction over the years."

Hope gave a small chuckle but then paused. She was looking at the dance floor before she gave a sly smile, "It's cost us a lot but it looks like someone is enjoying the benefits of the destruction. Finally!"

Rouge and the Commander looked at Hope in confusion before following her gaze. The Commander gave a smirk while Rouge outright rolled her eyes.

"I suppose it is about time something happened, but do they have to be so damned cute?"

Amy followed their eyes to the dance floor and saw Shadow. His back was to them but he was dressed in a rather nice black suit. His hover shoes were a bright contrast to his formal attire. Someone's hands where on his arm, firmly guiding him into the dance. Amy began to smile in confusion a bit. Who'd have thought Shadow would have a girlfriend? Amy's eyes widened in shock, however, when he turned around to show his partner.

Everything seemed to freeze in place as she saw the ever familiar pink hedgehog laughing as Shadow struggled through the dance steps in front of her. Amy's ears buzzed and her vision faded to white. She felt her whole body go numb before she let out a shriek of indignation.

"WHAT!?"

Amy was very suddenly brought back to the present when she found herself surrounded in silence. She looked in front of her to see the young Hope in front of her once more, a look of worry on her face. As Amy quickly gazed around the room she realized that she was also being stared at with looks of deepest concern. As she looked down she realized her hands were curled into fists and large indentations were on the tables beneath the cloth. She was leaned forward in a distinctly aggressive stance, she realized, and began to slowly move back from it.

"Um..." Hope started cautiously, "Are you... ok, Amy?"

Amy looked back at her then down at her cards then back up at Hope before standing up suddenly, "You will be successful in all your mechanical endeavors, good luck in everything else."

Amy quickly picked up her cards and walked away, even as Hope called out to her in concern.

"Am I going crazy?" she thought as she pushed past everyone around her, "Or did I just see the future?"

She gave a curt goodnight to Sonic and Sally before pushing past them as well. As she headed back to Sky Patrol, she placed a deeply determined look on her face, "No way. That couldn't have been the future. Even if it was, it was just me being friendly. It had nothing to do with us being a couple. I'll never give up on Sonic, NEVER!"

Amy repeated that in her head over and over as she made her way up the ramp to the flying fortress. She gave a weary goodnight to Cream, Big, and NICOLE before stomping her way into her room. She ditched her dress and got ready for bed. After doing all of that she plopped into bed and with a final fervent "NEVER" she snuggled in to sleep to dream of her future with Sonic...

_Amy was in the woods. She knew that much but she didn't know exactly where. The trees towered above her on all sides but the woods were oddly clean. She wasn't entirely sure why but the leaves and twigs were cleared from the ground and all she saw the was the packed dirt beneath her._

_"This place is really well traveled," she thought to herself, "Where am I?"_

_Suddenly she heard a crash with trees breaking and a loud "Oomph"._

_Amy began running towards the sound, willing her hammer to come to her. When she came to the clearing she saw... Shadow?_

_At least it looked like Shadow from behind. The same windswept quills, crimson stripes flying down his fur and his feet set apart in a familiar defensive stance. There was something off about the boy. Amy couldn't quite place it but inside she couldn't set aside the feeling that this wasn't Shadow._

_Finally, after what felt like an eternity of just standing there, there was a series of flashes and he was dodging back and forth between each flash of light. That was all he was doing, however, there was no move for the offensive. Finally he made a wrong move and the flash sent him flying towards Amy. He landed flat on his back in front of Amy. She automatically leaned forward to see if he was hurt but stopped short when she realized the mobian hedgehog was just a boy, not even 7 years old. He wore no clothes to speak of except for his plain white gloves and what looked like a rather intricate watch on his left wrist. Amy thought for a short moment that maybe she was in the past, seeing Shadow's childhood until the boy opened his eyes at her._

_Amy froze when she realized the boys eyes were a glaring emerald green._

_"Mom, tell Dad to stop being so cheap! It's not fair that he keeps knocking me into the dust using the Chaos Control!"_

_The boy was looking directly at her, so she twirled around to find herself facing..._

_Herself? It was definitely an older version of her but the woman was slightly taller with a more curvy figure than before. She was dressed in a long white dress that was intricately embroidered with pale pink roses all around it. It capped her shoulders but left her arms free. What stunned Amy the most was that her hair was longer and pulled up into an intricate french bun studded with jewelry and a crown perched on her head._

_"A crown?!" Amy thought in shock, "How... why? But..."_

_She was interrupted when the woman began to giggle at the boy at her feet. She then smiled and said, "You're being a little too hard on him love. How's he going to learn if he keeps getting pushed into the dust?"_

_There was one final flash and in its place stood the one person Amy did _not_ want to see. Shadow the Hedgehog stood in front of her but now he had a deep crimson cape and a matching crown on his head. Younger Amy was frozen with shock after shock. There was no questioning that the mobian woman was her. There was no questioning that this was her son._

_"You're thinking too hard again, Gerald," he answered back smoothly, "Keep focused on your opponent instead of where you think you need to be and you won't have to worry about being 'knocked into the dust'."_

_"I thought you said I needed to be constantly aware of my surroundings and where I need to be in a fight?" the boy asked as he stood and brushed himself off, "I'm doing it as fast as I can..."_

_Shadow simply rolled his eyes, "I said to be aware, not to constantly cloud your mind with inane thoughts about what you should be doing. You're not prepared to be in an all out fight yet. You need to keep focusing on honing your instincts. The only way to do that would be to focus on an impossibly fast opponent."_

_He then folded his arms and shot a look at Amy, a small smirk playing on the side of his lips, "Or am I being too hard on the boy again?"_

_The woman, who had been the picture of demure womanhood, suddenly rolled her eyes and gave a smirk herself, "Fine. But just remember, if you're going to teach our son like that, you're going to have to be prepared to teach our daughters the same way."_

_This seemed to give Shadow some pause. He raised a brow in response, "Maria doesn't want to learn how to fight. Elaina's still too young to learn how to fight."_

_The conversation went on like this as the couple bartered and argued about how they were going to train their children. As this went on, Amy's mind buzzed with questions. How did this happen. Why was it happening? Why Shadow?! Even as the questions bred like flies in her mind and the two got closer together with their flirting and arguing, she found she wanted nothing more than to wake up from the nightmare she was seeing. However, the vision did not end with the couple being so close to kissing that Amy was about to go into full meltdown mode. Just as they were coming closer, about to kiss, a young rooster cleared his throat nervously at the couple._

_"Pardon the intrusion your majesties, but Mercia needs their King and Queen..."_

Amy gave a great gasp in shock when she woke up. She looked around the room from her bed frantically trying to come to grips with what she'd seen.

_"You're majesties!?" _she thought, "_Mercia... queen_?"

It took her a moment to gather herself and take deep, gulping breaths. She knew she was from Mercia originally. She knew she was in line for the throne, and not very far down the line either. It also explained the crowns in the dream. But now that she was aware that it wasn't just a lucid dream about what could very well have been the stuff of her worst imaginings, she was beginning to fear exactly what that meant for the future. Something was going on in Mercia. Something that had to do with her and eventually Shadow.

Amy slowly got up from her bed and checked the clock for time, "7 am huh?"

Amy shook the remaining drowsiness from her head and decided to get up completely. She got a glass of water before brushing her teeth and changing into her normal red dress and boots. She looked herself in the mirror and realized just how tired she still looked even after nine hours of sleep.

"Maybe I just need to go for a walk?" she thought to herself, "If I can just clear my head and figure out what the hell is rattling in my head I can make heads or tails of this..."

But as Amy crested a peak on the outskirts of Station Square an hour later, she felt she was no closer to finding any sort of answer to her problem as she was the night before.

"Why Shadow?" she repeated for the umpteenth time, "Why not Sonic? Sonic is sweeter! Sonic is more talkative! Sonic would dance with me..."

"Except for last night..." a dark voice in her head murmured.

Amy gave an angry growl and before she realized what was going on, her hammer was in her hands and she was giving a few practice swings.

"Sonic will get over Sally someday. Sonic is my true love! Sonic would never want to be the king of any country, he's way too free! I can't be the Queen of Mercia. I don't know anything about Mercia! I obviously left for a reason, so WHY AM I THE QUEEN?!"

There was no answer for that. As much as she racked her brain she couldn't remember anything before leaving for the Acorn Kingdom to see Sonic so many years ago. How long had that been? Maybe it was because of that genesis wave thing? Maybe Amy was simply too young to remember. Regardless of the reason, she was clueless about Mercia and it's political, ecological, economic and overall status in everything and WHY WAS SHE THE QUEEN?!

Amy had considered the idea that it was just a dream, but around half an hour into her walk she couldn't help but feel that was definitely not the case. It didn't explain her blank out moment at the celebration ball earlier and it didn't explain why the two would include Shadow of all people. Even if that was the most logical conclusion, and she wished more than anything that it was the case, something just kept telling her that not only was it not just a dream but something big was going to happen soon.

Finally Amy turned her rage to a nearby tree and started swinging wildly with her eyes closed, "WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME!?"

Her hammer met with what she assumed was the side of the tree truck. That idea was quickly debunked when she tried to pull it back for another swing and she couldn't pull it back. She then opened her eyes and was met face to face with the one hedgehog she had sincerely hoped never to see again.

"I've been meaning to ask you the same question."

A deep chill went through Amy's body at the sound of that ever familiar voice. Shadow the Hedgehog stood just in front of her, his left hand catching the massive head of Amy's hammer with ease. Only one thought kept going through her mind.

"Dammit."

* * *

><p>So here's the first chapter, the second chapter will be up immediately and the following chapters will be uploaded on a weekly basis on Sunday. Please let me know what you think and I'll try to upload in a timely manner from now on. I refuse to let this one die! See you next time!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Second chapter as promised. The third will be up this coming Sunday the fourth so stay tuned!

* * *

><p>At first glance, his stance was almost casual, even more so than usual. However, a closer look showed that while his stance wasn't particularly wide, it was rooted enough to be prepared for a fight. His brow was raised in questioning and his eyes a piercing red, even more so than usual. Amy's heart jumped as quickly as she did but her fear turned to annoyance very quickly.<p>

"G...Geez Shadow don't scare me like that!" Amy cried as she tried again, in vain, to pull her hammer back, "What are you doing here so early anyway?

"I don't sleep," he said simply as he shifted his stance and let her hammer go, "Neither did Hope last night."

Amy raised an eyebrow, "What happened?"

"Apparently you spooked her at the party last night. Something about a reading?"

Amy froze before she palmed her face, "Oh... geez... she thought that was about her?"

"What else was she supposed to think?" Shadow asked curtly, "According to her you zoned out for a full minute, screamed, then ran out before she could ask what was wrong."

Amy gave a small groan. She banged her head on her own hammer before grinding out, "Sorry about that. I just... I've never had something like that happen before."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, silently willing her to continue. Amy blushed in response, not wanting to tell him about the two of them dancing (or them being married with several kids).

"It's... kind of a weird story," she tried.

Shadow shot her a deadpanned look and folded his arms in response. Amy sighed and willed her hammer away before she sat on the hill and looked over the horizon. She had decided it would be better than looking directly at him.

"It started off when I set the cards down. There was this flash of light and everything faded into it."

Amy paused to let this information sink in. If Shadow needed any clarification he didn't say anything. So she took a deep breath and continued on through the vision.

"Then Hope pointed you out on the dance floor and you were..."

Amy stopped at that point, a blush creeping over her face and her mind going over her dream over and over again.

"I was what?"

Amy's blush deepened at that point and she turned away from him, "Dancing."

She could feel Shadow's eyes on her now, boring through her skull before, "No I wasn't."

Amy had to pause at that one before she let out a small, "What?"

"You're lying," he said, "I wasn't dancing. I doubt my dancing would have made you react that way in front of Hope and the United Federation diplomats. What was I really doing?"

This time Amy swung her head around to look at Shadow, who was still rooted to the same spot, his crimson eyes challenging her emerald green ones. This time Amy was up to the challenge, "Yes you were, I saw you."

"I don't dance."

"You were then."

"I hate dancing."

"It takes two to waltz, Shadow."

Shadow rolled his eyes in response, "This is ridiculous. I don't even know how to waltz."

"Well, that was clear, I was the one teaching you in the vision."

Amy's heart seemed to stop in that moment. Her blush increased tenfold and she swung her head back to meet the horizon. Before she could hear Shadow say anything, she pressed on with her story.

"So... ya I... I just got so freaked out about the vision that I left," Amy finished, "I mean. I don't have anything against you or anything but Sonic's been the focus of my life for so long... it just felt weird you know?"

Shadow stood there for a long moment, but Amy kept her eyes rooted to the skyline. She could feel his eyes on her before she heard him walk the distance from his original spot to sit beside her. When he was settled he began staring at the horizon as though whatever answers were flying through his head could be found in the rising sun.

There was a few moments of silence before Shadow finally spoke, "What are you trying to tell me?"

Amy groaned, "That I don't know what's going on with me or why we're dancing together in the future?"

Shadow had to roll his eyes at that, "If you feel that strongly against having a romantic connection with me, then it's not the future. We make our own paths and if you don't like it, then change it for yourself. If it helps, I'm not particularly interested either."

Amy snorted, "That's a relief."

Shadow gave a smirk, "I thought you would be more happy about that."

"It's one thing for me to say 'I don't like you'. It's another to hear you say the same thing."

"You've had a change of heart then?"

Amy shot a glare at Shadow before playfully shoving him, "You wish!"

Shadow gave a snort before asking, "Did you have any other symptoms?"

"Like what?"

"Headache? Dizziness? Blurry vision? Numbness?"

Amy frowned a moment, "A little dizziness? Everything else was fine. I know it was a real vision I just don't know how to deal with them. I know I'm not crazy."

Shadow smirked, "No more than usual at any rate."

"Hey!" Amy cried out with a glare, "I'm the sanest person here. And you barely know me!"

Shadow raised a brow before commenting, "You're the same girl who came up to a desperate hedgehog who was willing to destroy the world and plead for mercy on their behalf. Has the definition of sanity changed so much in 50 years, or is that still considered crazy?"

Amy rolled her eyes before sighing, "I did that to get you to help. God knows I couldn't yet."

Shadow said nothing to this before he turned away, "You've come a long way on your own. Be proud of that much."

"I am."

Shadow smirked at her response before motioning to her, "Do you have time now? You'll want to apologize to Hope before you leave."

"I don't think we're leaving today," Amy commented while getting up, "Everyone was planning on relaxing here for one more day before going back to Knothole since King Max is planning to talk to the President some more today."

Shadow's brow raised as he led the way, "About what?"

Amy shrugged, "No idea. Maybe it's two leaders talking shop; maybe it's business or something big coming up. I'm not huge on politics and even if I was I don't think I'm important enough to keep in the know about it."

Shadow frowned at that but didn't comment on it. Instead he silently led her through the streets of Station Square. It was at that point that Amy finally realized she wasn't uncomfortable around Shadow anymore.

...

King Max sat before the President's desk, looking over the papers that he had set before him, "Issac... they're being serious about this?"

"I'm afraid so, Max," the President leaned back in his chair while rubbing his eyes, "They've been going on about the return of their duchess for months now, in light of Doctor Eggman's return to power."

"Why wasn't this sent directly to me?" King Max asked, "Amy has been living within the Acorn kingdom for years now serving in the Freedom Fighters. Why is this going to you?"

"They seem to be under the impression that she's been living here for all this time. I can't even begin to imagine why though," the President sighed, "They've been sending letters even as my country was being bombarded by aliens, the earth's crust breaking up, and throughout Eggman's multiple attempts at a take over. Each time they're insistent on Ms. Rose being sent back to the Mercian capital to be reunited with her family."

King Max frowned down at the letters, "King Liam's gone mad! 'Should the duchess be prevented from returning to her rightful home, know that the consequences will be swift and most dire?' What the hell is he thinking, war?"

"I haven't responded to anything they've sent for obvious reasons," the President stood this time, "I haven't told them where she's really been. I ask that you answer these letters in my stead."

The king sighed, "I'll have to speak with Amy about this. I don't personally know the reasons behind her leaving her home. Sending her home without her consent could be problematic."

The President raised a brow, "You're afraid of her? Really Max, she's a child, you need her permission?"

The King smirked, "You've never seen her in battle before? She's quite a sight. She easily keeps up with my daughter and regularly travels with Sonic as one of my most trusted Freedom Fighters. If she doesn't want to go, she won't go."

Now the President's eyes widened, "She would get violent?"

"Only if we forced her into a situation we know nothing about but she does," the King responded, "Allow me to respond to these messages for you. But really Issac, you're afraid of the Mercians? Their quite behind on the technological level and from what I can recall they're facing something of a civil war at the moment."

"I'm not afraid to face them if the need arises," The President murmured, "What I'm not looking forward to is sending my men to massacre an already vulnerable country's soldiers over one young lady. Even less do I look forward to giving Doctor Eggman another possible strong hold so close to my borders."

King Max nodded, "Good point. I'll speak with her today at my earliest convenience. If she agrees, Sky Patrol will escort her to the capital."

"Should she disagree?"

The King sighed, "If she declines for a good reason, then I will respect that decision. Amy has been with the Kingdom of Acorn for a number of years now. She's been a Freedom Fighter for 2 of those years. She's as much an Acorn citizen as she is Mercian. On top of all that... I don't care for what Liam is trying to pull. He's desperate for Amy and it can't be for her parents. You've never received anything from Mercia other than from King Liam?"

The President shook his head.

The King sighed in response, "Then he either speaks on her parent's behalf or his own. Why now? Only in the past few months have they inquired about her whereabouts for the sake of her parents? Who for some reason have chosen to ignore Amy's absence from Mercia for at least seven years until now? That is the definition of a stretch, Issac. They have plans for Amy and I'm not sure I'd care for them any more than Amy would. Whatever the consequences may be for keeping her here against Liam's wishes, they will be far worse than having to face Sonic or my daughter's wrath."

"For one girl?"

"For one girl who may play a greater role than we can possibly understand at this time," the King said sagely, "I have met with King Liam Rose... He's usually far more withdrawn, especially about the things he wants. He's held staunchly to the idea of his kingdom being completely isolated from the rest of the world. If he's reaching out to you it means he's willing to do whatever it takes."

The president contemplated this for a moment before sighing, "You have a point. I'm going to have to do some investigating of my own if that is the case."

The King nodded, "You're under no obligation Issac but... for old time's sake keep me in the loop? My daughter and her friends would be... most concerned if Amy were to run amok of the Mercian court."

The President smirked, "The blood of the covenant thicker than the water of the womb, Max?"

"Especially among the Freedom Fighters, Issac. Was that all we needed to discuss?"

"I believe so."

"If you don't mind? I'd like to take these copies," the King took them carefully in his hands before sighing once more, "Miss Rose will want to see the whole picture and I'm not looking forward to her temper once she does."

...

"So again, Hope, I'm really sorry for freaking you out," Amy apologized, "I've never had that happen before..."

Amy was in the engineering room for Team Dark with Hope, Shadow, Rouge and Omega looking on with mixtures of amusement and confusion on their faces. The room itself was a large one that managed to be the most cluttered place Amy had ever seen. That she'd been allowed in was something of a miracle on its own. The guards at the door and every door from then entrance to the engineering room were all willing to make a ruckus over it. Still, one glare from Shadow set them to silence (one brave soldier even required a growled "Move" before he would budge). Amy had been mildly impressed at the respect ("_Fear?" _she thought) he'd amassed in his short stay with GUN. Finally, however, they made it to the room where Hope was staring at her project in strange mixture of fear and depression. When Amy finally explained the vision to her (sans the Shadow and her dancing part) Hope's eyes filled with a fervor Amy had only ever felt in herself and seen in her fellow Freedom Fighters.

"Are you kidding me? That's awesome! I'm going to make nanites that could make up the city, that's BRILLIANT! I should start research right..."

"Ahem?"

They both looked back to Rouge clearing her throat and Shadow right beside her with a mildly amused look on his face.

"Why don't you finish the project you've already started?" Rouge suggested, "Then tell the Commander your idea and see if he'll fund something like that."

"Sensors indicate multiple projects cluttering room," Omega, "Should you wish to scrap said projects, I can be of assistance!"

"NO no!" Hope said hurriedly, "You're right, I should probably finish these before I go talk to da... I mean Commander Towers about it. I'm sure he'll be ok with it though. I can't imagine anyone being against the idea."

Amy felt a small tickle in her brain and a feeling of apprehension around her. She wasn't sure exactly why, but she had a feeling that it was a sign for her to leave.

Rouge apparently agreed, because she made a beeline for Amy and grabbed Amy's arm, "We'll just show you the way out..."

Amy got out an indignant, "Hey!" before she felt herself being thrown into that frighteningly familiar fizzling brightness.

...

When the brightness faded, Amy saw Rouge beside her, apprehension deeply apparent in her features.

"What the hell did you do?" Rouge demanded.

Amy froze, fear struck deep in her soul, "Y...you can see it too?"

Rouge looked as though she was going bite out another sharp remark when they were both interrupted by someone shouting bloody murder near them. It was only then that they realized where they were at. They took in their appearance and it looked as though they were in a waiting room of some sort. There were 3 people there, both of whom Amy and Rouge were deeply familiar with.

"Shadow?" Rouge stepped forward, her hand held out seemingly in comfort, "Omega and... you. What... what are you...?"

Suddenly another scream erupted from the room near them and both Shadow and Omega were on their feet again heading towards a door to their left. Amy noted with deep shame that she was there as well, standing by Shadow... her own belly deeply swollen with a baby. Amy stared a moment at the pair, wondering which of the children that one was... or if this was baby number four. She shuddered at the though before she looked at their heads. They wore no crowns this time. She eyed this curiously before setting that thought aside. Her future self held Shadow back by his arm, whispering soothing words about how 'she' was okay and that the doctors could handle it. Omega, however, shook himself out of Amy's grasp and made it all the way to the door before a nearby nurse stopped him and turned him away. He was only called by Shadow, who urged him gently, but still rather apprehensively, to come back.

"Comrade Rouge is in danger," Omega stated sullenly before sitting down.

"Comrade Rouge will be okay," Future Amy replied patiently, "As long as the doctors are left alone and are able to do their job."

Omega regarded future Amy and her belly in particular, "You are 100% certain."

She nodded in affirmation, "The doctors know what to do. And Rouge is strong. She and her baby will be okay."

Amy's eyes widened at the realization and gulped. She'd always assumed that Rouge wasn't the maternal type. She'd never imagined that Rouge would want to have kids, get married or even settle down for that matter.

"Then again," Amy thought to herself, "I don't really know her all that well, do I?"

Amy looked to Rouge, fearing that an explanation for why she was there with Shadow and a baby on the way would be demanded. Instead she found Rouge staring at the door in fear and disgust, her ears pushed back and her fangs clenched and bared all at once.

"That's me behind the door then?"

After another scream ripped through the air, Amy saw a cringe run up and down Rouge's body. Amy discovered something new in that moment- Rouge had never wanted to go through childbirth.

"Then why keep a baby?" she asked herself, "What is she going to do? Is she a surrogate or..."

"Who's the father?" she suddenly thought.

Amy, bidden by a morbid sense of curiosity, moved forward past Rouge towards the door before being violently pulled back by her shoulder. She slammed back down onto the floor and was barely allowed a moment to breathe before a hard and heavy boot slammed against her chest.

"DON'T YOU DARE GO IN THERE!"

Amy looked fearfully up at Rouge and, for the first time since she'd ever met her, understood just how scary she could be. Still, she nodded her acknowledgement and the boot was removed with one last great shove. Amy stood up, absentmindedly noting that the assault hadn't harmed her in the slightest as Rouge made her way towards the door...

And was stopped inches away from it as though by the work of an invisible wall.

Rouge felt along the wall at first rather patiently but when that didn't work, she began to gently knock, then pound on the wall with all her might. Eventually, when another scream ripped through the air, she whirled around to face Amy.

"You say not a word to anyone," Rouge warned through clenched teeth, "If I find you've even mentioned you having this... completely mental hallucination, much less that it has to do with me, you will never see another sunny fucking day again. Got it?"

Amy nodded quickly before moving forward.

"And that's why she belongs on Team Dark," she thought to herself as she passed through the door with Rouge.

When they did, Amy's suspicions were confirmed.

"Alright Ms. Bat," the doctor, a human male in scrubs , called out gently, "This is the home stretch. Just one more push and you're done!"

The futuristic Rouge looked like a mess. Her fur was matted and she was sweating through her pale blue hospital gown. She had make up on, but it was smearing and dripping over her sweating face. Somehow, she'd managed to break the harnesses and so two human nurses were struggling to keep her legs up, apart and still. Even then they looked even more tired out than Rouge was. Although she hadn't managed to break the arm holds on her bed, they were deeply scratched and dented.

"Well thank god for that doc," she managed with a gasp, "Let's get this brat out so we can all go hoOO... AHHH!"

Amy's Rouge looked on in shock, as did Amy. Both were frozen in place and Rouge in particular seemed deeply affected when the scream subsided and a tiny wail took its place. The doctors shielded the baby from their view but Amy could see Mother Rouge slumped in relief after they took the baby away and cut the umbilical cord. The baby continued its cacophony before it was weighed out and wrapped in a pale blue blanket.

"Congratulations, Ms Bat," the nurse handed the baby to Rouge, "It's a boy!"

The Rouge beside Amy took a step back in disgust before turning to Amy, "Take me back."

The Rouge in the bed regarded the baby bat in an oddly calculating way, as though weight the pros and cons of taking her own son in her arms. Eventually, however, she gave in and held her arms out for the little boy.

"Take me back, now, Pinky!"

Mother Rouge looked down to examine the boy. He was a bat, there was no doubting that much. What fur could be seen was completely white like his mother's. But as Rouge gently pat the blanket around the boy's face, Amy saw a small birthmark on his chest...

...A deep, crimson red crescent moon laying on its back...

"I SAID LET ME GO AMY!"

Amy could feel herself being violently shaken through her shock. She wasn't focused on that however. She was focused on Mother Rouge's cold and distant assessment of her own child. Even as the vision began to fade to white the last thing Amy heard from Mother Rouge was, "Have they come to take Micah to his mother yet?"

...

Amy felt herself slumping a bit from fatigue, but not before being violently pushed to the side once more. She felt herself slam against a desk and slump to the floor before regaining full awareness of her surroundings.

She was back at GUN HQ. She was in Hope's workshop. Rouge was being held back by Omega and Shadow was in front of her trying to calm her down.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS ALL THAT FOR, HUH?!" Rouge cried out, "What the hell did I ever do to you?"

Hope looked on in wonder and fear before going to help Amy up, "You... had another vision?"

Amy looked fearfully from Hope to Rouge and then to Shadow's inquisitive but hard look on his face before standing, "I... I'm sorry."

Rouge seemed to freeze before a cold, hard cackle escaped her lips. It cut through to Amy, "Like hell you are. I saw you in there. You were just as much in deep shit as I was back there..."

"I don't know what's going on with me," Amy retorted, fighting back a blush, "I don't even know if that's really the future or not... I don't know what the hell we saw in there..."

A sneer spread across Rouge's face, "Does he know? What future you have in store for him too?"

Amy felt as though Rouge had dumped cold water over her body. She began to shake with fear when Hope looked to her in askance.

"Enough."

Shadow's voice cut through the air. Not breaking the tension between the two of them but enough to get them refocused on the present. Shadow looked at both of them, trying to assess the situation at hand and come to a satisfactory conclusion as to what to do about it. Apparently he could think of nothing. He heaved a sigh and looked to Amy with a weary look in his crimson eyes.

"You should go."

Amy lost no time. She practically bolted out of the room, down thirty flights of stairs and out of the building. She didn't even really know how she found her way out, only that she was out and away from the GUN.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sorry I took so long. I had a day off and I forgot to post it. I'm so sorry! But here it is! Please enjoy! See you all next week!

* * *

><p>"If I never see any of them again, it'll be too soon," she thought to herself, "But then..."<p>

Dread shot through her body as she made her way through the streets of Station Square, "I took Rouge with me through my vision. People are getting stuck in my visions with me now..."

She passed through one of the cities multiple parks and sat on the nearest bench she could see. After all of the nonsense she'd been going through today... and it wasn't even noon yet... her legs felt like jelly beneath her and her heart pounded as though it was trying to escape.

"So I'm not going crazy," she thought with bemusement, "But... now my friends can be affected by this."

Amy took several deep breaths before palming her face with both of her hands. She closed her eyes and felt her breaths become more shallow and shuddering. She tried as hard as she could to fight the tears welling up behind her hands but the sobs broke through as the tears absorbed into her gloves.

"What's happening to me?" she thought frantically.

"Ms. Rose?"

Amy's form froze and she fought off the urge to groan and tell off whoever was trying to speak with her this time. Instead she looked through her gloved hands to give as deadly a glare as she could manage...

Only to be met by the one mobian she wasn't expecting to speak with at all.

"King Max?!" Amy exclaimed, dropping her hands and her glare, "What... what are you...?"

"I was on my way back to Sky Patrol to look for you actually..." he motioned to the bench, asking for permission to sit.

Amy jumped to the side, allowing the King to sit with a small thank you. He settled himself into his new seat and regarded Amy once more.

"I... see you've heard the news about Sonic and my daughter..."

Amy looked on in confusion before coming to her own conclusion, "They're... together?"

The king nodded before Amy barked out a disgusted laugh, "This really is the worst day of my life."

"Is that not what you were... contemplating?" the King asked gently, "Is something else troubling you?"

Amy looked on at her king. She almost wanted to tell him. But what would he say? Was what she was going through normal? Would he understand what was going on with her and would he be able to help her?

Amy thought on this a moment. Who else could she tell? Cream and Big wouldn't understand how terrible it was. The best she would get out of either of them would be a hug and a simple, 'Everything will be ok'. Amy wasn't sure she could deal with that at the moment. Bunnie would give some soft or vague advice with the same flavor of bullshit, but still being honest about how she didn't know how to help her. Nicole would pretty much tell her to go to the doctor while saying something about how mental illness could be managed under the right circumstances. Antoine would suggest she go to Tails. Tails would take her to Rotor who would tell her that future telling didn't exist. When Rotor didn't have an answer Tails would take her to Sonic or Sally...

... She wasn't ready to face either of them at this point.

Normally Sonic would understand and try to help her as much as he could. Sally would speak with Nicole on any possible leads through Mercia...

"Ms. Rose?"

Amy was taken back out of her thoughts at the sound of King Max's voice.

"Sorry... it's something I need to take care of myself," she finally decided, "What did you need to speak with me about?"

The King's brows furrowed, as though he wanted to push the issue. Instead he reached his hand into a satchel he was wearing. He pulled out a small pile of papers and handed them to Amy. She in turn took them gently out of his hands and looked over the first page. The paper felt heavier than what she was used to, more like cloth than actual paper. The words were a bit hard to read as the writing, while beautiful, was small and artfully written. It was as though the letters were supposed to be in a museum rather than in her hands.

Still she read-

_To Issac Hemmington_

_President of the United Federation_

_Dear Mr. Hemmington,_

_I dearly hope this letter finds you in good health and peace. May your reign be..._

Amy rolled her eyes at the blatant flattery and skipped ahead until she couldn't find anything to do with how much this guy hoped that the President was doing well. Still she was mildly shocked that she was reading through the President's mail and idly wondered why the king had it and thought to give it to her.

She continued to read-

_I have unfortunately found myself in a position, for the first time since the formation of either of our countries to asketh of you a more personal request. Ten years prior to this date my brother and his wife were forced upon the arrival of the villainous Doctor Eggman to relinquish their custody over their daughter, my niece and a noble citizen of the Kingdom of Mercia, to the state of the United Federation. The child in question would be a young lady now, just before the cusp of adulthood, the Lady Amelia Rose, Duchess of Deira. We ask, at this juncture, that the child be returned to her home, now that the threat of Dr. Eggman is being kept at bay and thankfully outside of the borders of Mercia._

_I ask that a positive response along with a timetable of her arrival be sent to me at your earliest convenience. Please bare in mind as her uncle, one of her last remaining family in the world, I would be most appreciative of a hasty response._

_King Liam Rose IV,_

_Sovereign of the Kingdom of Mercia_

Amy was now deeply in shock. Shock after shock that'd she'd had throughout the day, this was by far the biggest and she was surprised she hadn't keeled over yet.

She moved to the next page, yet another letter asking for her to be sent...

_...forgiving my forwardness but I've yet to notice a time table for when the Duchess of Deira, the Lady Amelia Rose would be returning to the Mercian court to be reunited with her family. Although I am greatly appreciative of your time and most understanding of your predicaments up north, I must insist on a time line for her arrival be sent by no later than a week's time from today. Please recall the Duchess is but a child and her family misses her quite terribly. Should the duchess be prevented from returning to her rightful home, know that the consequences will be swift and most dire_

As Amy continued to read the letters to herself, she saw a man, her uncle, becoming more and more concerned with her well-being. It was the last letter that gave her the greatest pause.

"_I have been most patient with the United Federation. Yet although I have reminded you, Mr. President, countless times of the gravity of the situation regarding the lost Duchess, I cannot help but feel that my letters are going purposefully unheard. Should this continue I will be forced to take extreme measures to take a child of Mercia back from her kidnappers..._ Is he crazy!?" Amy cried out, "I haven't even been in the United Federation, I've been with the Freedom Fighters! Why... What does he mean by extreme measures?"

"More than likely he means extracting you from the United Federation," The King answered, "But such an act, to any other ruler, could incite a war between two nations. Of course, that's implying the United Federation wanted to keep you from Mercia personally, but then from Liam's perspective, that is the case. President Hemmington would never do such a thing of course.

"That being said, Liam, as far as I can tell, doesn't do regular diplomatic business with the President. As far as he can tell he is inciting a war with a nation who's far ahead of them technologically speaking. To be quite frank my dear I'm deeply concerned by this. What we know of the Mercian kingdom shows that they are in the midst of a civil outbreak. I can't imagine them being able to fight off an invasion force from the UF and their own people at the same time. Either the king has a plan and it revolves around you... or they are truly willing to risk throwing the whole kingdom to hell to get you home to your family."

Amy gave pause at that, "They... want me home?"

When the King nodded, the guilt that had been growing in her heart since that morning grew triple fold. As far as she was concerned her home was always wherever Sonic was. Her whole life was about making herself the perfect wife and partner for Sonic. To be told she'd have to quit being a Freedom Fighter for however long to deal with the issues in a country that she was born in but had no significant memories of was just heart wrenching.

"I don't want to go," she thought to herself, "But...the United Federation and Mercia could be facing a war if I don't go back."

A thought suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks, "What if what I'm going through right now is hereditary?"

She stood up suddenly, a small spark of hope growing in her heart, "What if they know what I'm going through right now and that's why they want me back home? That's why they're so insistent! I could really hurt people by doing this without any way to control it. They could teach me how to control it and I can go back after visiting everyone no problem!"

"I'll do it."

The King's eyes widened as he regarded Amy's standing form, "Are you quite sure?"

There was no hesitation in her eyes as Amy looked back at her King, "Ya. I'm sure. I need to go back to Mercia."

The King stared at her a moment before giving a forlorn sigh, "Very well. You'll want to send a letter to King Liam. Naturally I'll be more than happy to help you draft a response and we'll send it along emergency lines. Liam has always been rather archaic, so we'll have to send the message along via the messenger pigeons. They'll have the letter and its response delivered within a week I imagine."

Amy nodded absently to these plans, wondering distantly why she was shaking.

"I also propose we land directly in the capitol. It will save time and show Liam that we would rather not waste any more of his time. As far as an entourage goes, I'd be more than happy to spare any friends you would like to bring with you although I would love to keep at least..."

"I want to go alone."

The King paused before he frowned, "Are you sure that's wise, my dear? You're not just worrying about the civil war, there are dangers here that we know nothing about. You're going in blind, child. I would feel safer if you brought your friends with you..."

Amy shook her head, "I need to do this on my own. I just..."

Just what? She'd faced so much in her young life already, did she really need to justify her decision at that point?

"I can handle it."

The King looked at her but was deep in his own thoughts for a few moments. Finally he heaved another sigh, stood up and said, "Very well. I would suggest you add in the letter that you will be arriving alone. The nobility will be... most interested in why you insist on coming without an entourage. Although to be frank, I'm sure your friends will be even more concerned about why you wish to go alone.

Amy shook her head immediately, "I'm not going for the nobles, I'm going for family. And...my friends will understand that. I just need some time to figure some things out about my life."

The King gave a wry smile, "I understand the feeling. Often in our youth we end up lost, at least for a while. If it helps at all, Ms. Rose, I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for. However, I'm sure the Freedom Fighters will want at least a moment to say good bye."

Amy sighed as well, "Ya... better get going."

With that the King and Amy walked back towards the Sky Patrol together to relay the news to the rest of the Freedom Fighters.

...

When Amy returned, she was the first one in the Sky Patrol. She couldn't help but feel grateful for that. It would give her time to contemplate what she would need to bring. She made her way to her room and couldn't help but feel more than a little saddened by the whole ordeal. Tears welled up in her eyes when she finally made it to her room and found it in the same state of organized chaos as it usually was. The white carpet was plush beneath her feet and the walls were painted a lovely shade of deep magenta for her. When she'd first walked in, she couldn't believe Rotor had taken the time to personalize her room for her like that. A smile bloomed on Amy's face when she remembered the hug she'd given him for the little white desk, the book shelf in the corner, the punching bag hanging in the middle of the room in case she decided to take up boxercising again... really for everything in the room. She remembered the giggles that rang in the room from the blush he'd given and the hasty, 'Moving on!'. For all she knew it was going to be a long time before she saw her room again.

"What am I doing?" she asked herself, "This is my home. I know my family... my blood family is in Mercia but, aren't the Freedom Fighters my family too?"

She slowly made her way to the desk and sat. She freely allowed the tears to fall as she reached for a clean piece of paper. Amy wiped her eyes furiously in an attempt to get them to stop when she actually grabbed a pen to begin writing her letter to the King...

What does one say to a king to get them to stop sending threats to other heads of state?

Amy felt the tears in her eyes well up again, this time in deep frustration of her situation. She put the pen down and put her hands over her eyes to try and stave off the flow. When it refused to stop she simply sat there, hands over her eyes, and allowed herself to cry and contemplate. She'd managed to alienate Shadow and Team Dark in general, so now if there was ever a mission with them it would be awkward as hell. She'd found out about Sonic and Sally's rekindled relationship. Now she had to figure out how to write to someone she'd never met, who happened to be King of the nation she was going to be traveling to to figure out who or what she was.

Amy was lost; there was no questioning that.

"And rather than doing something I'm just sitting here crying like a baby," she thought to herself.

A wave of shame wafted over her when she actually felt a small sob escape her body. It made her feel even more frustrated.

"I don't want to feel. I don't want to cry. I'm stronger than this. I need to do something."

She heard a sigh behind her before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She heard the tell-tale signs of someone saying, "My Dear" before she felt herself getting pulled into another vision.

_They were in a large room. Rather it used to be a large room before it was completely stuffed with toys, book shelves, a cradle, a walker, a rocking chair, and so many other miscellaneous kids things that Amy's head spun with it all. The walls were a soft pink with little white stars sprinkled here and there. But there were more crudely drawn pictures of mobians, animals and smiling suns than there were stars on the walls._

_Amy's attention was ultimately drawn, however, to the little blue figure in the center of it all, swaying a shining ribbon wand in front of the cradle. Her eyes widened and began to fill with even more tears as she realized just who the little blue hoglet with the long auburn hair was._

_She didn't need to in the end, as the little girl eventually turned to the pair, focusing completely Amy's partner for this trip. Her green eyes widened in a happiness only a young child could honestly and openly show_

_"GRANDPA!" she cried out and ran for the door, towards King Max._

_The King's eyes widened in surprise, but knelt to receive the child nonetheless. Great was his surprise when the child actually ran through him to the even older squirrel behind him. He turned in shock to see his older doppelganger behind him, swinging the child back and forth in a loving embrace. The younger king looked to Amy in askance, but she had no answer. All she felt was embarrassed and numb. She wasn't meant to be here, not for something so private. Especially when Sonic and Sally, together arm in arm, walked into the room with loving smiles on their faces. Amy wasn't a part of this family. She wasn't meant to have this, not with Sonic anyway._

_King Max was however. Despite his shock, she could see a small smile growing on his face. "Was it relief?" Amy thought distantly. When the child was set down she started doing a little dance with the ribbon for her grandfather that she'd practiced so hard, the King actually swelled in pride at her grace. Even at three years old little Sonia was going to be a star dancer he'd assured her. She then decided to introduce her younger brother, Manic. He was just a baby, but he loved her dance too..._

_Everyone was happy, everyone was getting what they wanted. Yet rather than feeling happy, all Amy could do was feel bitter. They had what they wanted but where was she? Stuck in Mercia with Shadow and a kid (more than one no less) and a kingdom to look after. One that she barely knew existed until now? How did that happen? Why? Why? WHY?!_

_Amy didn't get to see anything else that happened and she closed herself off from the vision. Even then, the vision lasted another minute. One full minute of family fun and gushing and laughter and happiness that Amy wasn't a part of. That Amy wanted more than all the world and she had to watch someone else have it. She was grateful when she felt the familiar pull of the vision ending._

She was even more grateful for the silence afterwards. The hand was frozen on her shoulder but she knew the King would remove it in his own time. She didn't want to risk looking at him. She knew she would burst out into tears if she looked directly in anyone's eyes at this point. Instead she plastered a hasty smile on her face and said, "Crazy, right?"

She felt the hand squeeze her gently, as though it were trying to give some level of comfort to her, "Quite... enlightening. I've never seen anything like that, honestly."

The silence that followed was palpable. Amy then hung her head, her smile having long since fallen and her tears starting to flow freely.

"I'm so sorry. I'm... trying to figure it out as best as I can. I thought maybe if I went back to Mercia I can figure out what's wrong with me..."

The hand squeezed one more time before it left. Amy presumed it found the King's chin when she heard a glove rubbing on fur.

"That... explains quite a bit," the King offered, "With... this in mind... would you like me to speak with your friends to explain the situation before..."

"NO!"

Amy hadn't realized just how much she didn't want her friends to hear about this from anyone, much less herself, until the king had offered. She gave a shaky sigh and replied, "I'd... rather they just think I'm going to Mercia for my own reasons. I... don't want them to see what I've been going through. They won't be able to help me."

There was a pause before the king offered a comment of his own, "I understand your sentiments, Amy. However, I think you underestimate your friends and what they are capable of doing. I'm rather surprised to hear that lack of faith coming from you."

Amy winced from the sting but refused to relent. The king sighed, "I'll speak with them personally. I would suggest you take the time until the King's reply to pack and prepare for their goodbyes. They're... bound to be full of questions."

Amy nodded, "I'll be ready."

The king stood for a moment, regarding Amy once more before she heard him turn away and out the door, shutting it behind her. Amy took a deep shuddering breath before she wiped her eyes and took up her pen. She looked over the blank paper in fear for a moment before she began to write.

...

Four Days Later

"So... y'all are leaving the Freedom Fighters?" Bunnie asked gently, "Foh good?"

Amy shook her head as she finished gathering the last of her things into her backpack.

"I'm not leaving forever. I just have some things to take care of in Mercia before I can come back," she answered distractedly.

"Well... when are y'all coming back?"

Amy paused at this as she regarded her luggage once more. She finally sighed before she looked back at Bunnie, "I don't know. But I'll be back as soon as I can."

While she didn't seem particularly satisfied with the answer, Bunnie decided it was best to let it go. While she wasn't particularly close to Amy she was still concerned for the young girl. All the other Freedom Fighters were told was that Amy was going to Mercia for a while. Normally this wouldn't be concerning but it was the King that explained the situation to them... not Amy. That set off a lot of warning bells for everyone involved.

Bunnie wasn't at all surprised that Amy didn't say anything to Sally. After the news of their relationship got out, it was only natural for Amy to be a little angry at Sally. But to not say anything to Sonic? That was the fishy. However, crazier than all of that was Amy out right avoiding everyone else for the last four days. Oh, she knew Amy would be upset with him but normally when it was something about him liking another girl she kept quiet about it and pretended it didn't exist. She'd give him a little extra space, but she'd act pretty normally around him.

Now all she did was sit in her room and pack up for Mercia. Even with all the quiet time she spent in her room, letting _no one_ in, she looked like she hadn't slept a wink in the five days since the gala.

Even more unsettling was Shadow asking after her in their goodbyes to Team Dark earlier that day. It wasn't unusual for the scowl he had on his face, but the scowl was even fiercer when he mentioned Amy and where she was.

_"I need to speak with her."_

_"Amy's not seeing anyone right now," Sonic answered with a grimace, "She's... been feeling a kinda off lately. I dunno what's going on but she's not doing ok."_

_Shadow had simply frowned at this, "It's important that I speak with her about her development."_

_It was at that moment that King Max himself stepped forward, throwing Shadow look of superior disapproval, "That is not something we are at liberty to discuss, Shadow the Hedgehog. Amy Rose, at this juncture is unfortunately not welcoming guests and we really must be on our way..."_

_Bunnie barely saw a look of angered understanding dawn in Sonic's eyes before he got into Shadow's face, "What do you mean her development? You mean you had something to do with Amy just up and leaving us? What'd you do!?"_

_It was all Sally could do to make him back down from Shadow and start a fight. Shadow wasn't going to back down and Sonic was still fighting the after affects of the dark Gaia on his temper. It was surprising that Sally had even managed that much. Eventually Shadow assured, rather sullenly, that he'd had nothing to do with Amy's disposition and assumed the same position as King Max, "I haven't done anything. Simply tell her that I've said my goodbyes and we wish her no ill will from our end."_

When Amy had been told what happened she looked shocked, relieved for barely a moment before she went back to her usual blank and hopeless face and said, "Oh. That's nice." They'd then been shooed from her room by King Max and to leave her be as she packed. Even with Sally's pleading for an explanation, King Max absolutely refused to give it. All he would say was that Amy had to go through the journey we all do as we grow into adults and she had decided it needed to be done on her own. Honestly all that wasn't enough to dispel any of the questions the Freedom Fighters had after they'd left the UF. If anything, it multiplied them. Ever since the party at Station Square Amy had been completely different and there didn't seem to be anything anyone could do except see Amy off on her way home...

"When are you coming home Amy?" Big asked, "Froggy and I will miss you... we already miss you."

Amy gave a small patient smile, "It'll be fine, Big. I promise. I'm not sure when I'm coming home but when I do, I'll make a nice batch of cookies for you and Froggy, okay?"

The put a small smile on Big's face, more hopeful than excited, "If I say no to cookies, will you stay?"

Amy gave a small snort of a laugh, "I have to do this Big. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can."

Suddenly the fortress began to rumble and they all gave a sharp cry as the room dropped several hundred feet. When they stopped falling, Bunnie, Cream and Big all clung to each other as Amy held on to the bed post. They stayed that way through the unexpected rough turbulence before the room made a sharp turn and they began to speed up.

"Mah stars," Bunnie murmured, "What in the heck is Rotor thinkin'?"

"There's been a change of plans with the landing," a wavering voice called out over the PA system, "It seems that we can't fly the Sky Patrol over Mercian airspace. We'll need to land closer to the edge of the forest. We'll be landing in a few minutes so... all concerned parties should start getting ready..."

Amy took a deep breath and shouldered her backpack. The gauntlet of goodbyes was just beginning.

"So much for going to the capitol," Amy said with a determined smile, "Oh well, better get going."

Cream was standing silently beside Bunnie, tears welling up in her eyes. Suddenly she launched forward, towards Amy. Before Amy could do anything, Cream latched on to Amy in a bear hug around her middle and cried out, "We'll miss you, Amy!"

The affect was immediate. Amy instantly peeled Cream off of her waist and pushed her towards Big. She then stood stock still in her spot, looking around the room with wide eyes while shaking uncontrollably.

"Amy!" Bunnie cried out, reaching out for Amy, "The Sam-hill do you think y'all are doin'?!"

"NO DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Amy held out her hands defensively. Bunnie stood still, but the anger in her heart grew when she heard little Cream whimper and Big's face fall in confusion and hurt. She was gonna have some words with Shadow the Hedgehog...

Amy noticed it too. She took a deep shaking breath before looking to Cream, "I'm sorry... I... I have a lot I have to figure out while I'm here. I promise when I get back, I'll give you two the biggest hug I can give, ok?"

"What y'all need to do is talk to us," Bunnie said sternly, "This isn't normal, Amy. We can help. We've dealt with a lot of crazy things over the yeahs... What makes you think we can't help y'all with this, too?"

Amy looked into Bunnie's jade green eyes with no small amount of hope in her own. For a moment, Bunnie thought that she would actually say something. Rotor suddenly came over the PA system again, to let them know they had landed on the outskirts of the Mercian forest. It was time to go. The spell was broken in that instant and Amy went quickly around Bunnie and to the exit.

When Amy reached the gaping mouth of the entrance to Sky Patrol, she saw all of the Freedom Fighters lined up to see her. Nicole stood beside Tails and Rotor, waving her off and wishing her good luck. Tails stopped her before moving forward with Rotor and a gift in his hands.

"We thought you could use this," he explained, "In case you got lost."

Amy looked in askance a moment before she opened the gift. Inside was a compass and a map of the entirety of the Mercian kingdom.

"It took a while to find an up to date map and even that is about thirty years old or so," Rotor explained, "But the compass is a regular magnetic one but there's also a communicator attached in there that will link up directly with NICOLE. So... if you change your mind and you want to come home..."

"We'll be here for you faster than Sonic!" Tails piped up with a smile, "So... don't be afraid to give us a ring, ok?"

Amy's eyes started to fill with tears but kept them at bay with a small smile, "Thanks you guys... I really appreciate this."

She then carefully placed both map and compass into her bag as carefully as she could. Before waving goodbye to all three and moving on. As she regarded Antoine, he saluted her.

"Bon Voyage, mon ami!" Antoine called and even chuckled a bit at his own joke. Even Amy couldn't help but smile a bit at that.

The last people she wanted to see were Sonic and Sally. Still, almost defiantly in her mind, they stood beside one another looking on in silent concern. Amy straightened her back before giving a silent wave to them as well. She walked forward and took her first step alone onto organic soil when...

"AMY!"

Amy suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, what she thought was the beginning of a hug. She had time to gasp before she was pulled into yet another vision.

Now she was in a room. It looked like a rather large bedroom with a four poster queen sized bed and a pristine white carpet. Across from the bed, about two yards from it was a make up table with a mirror. Seated at the table, applying the last bits of her make up, was Princess Sally.

Only...

She looked older. Not much but the change was noticeable. She wore her auburn hair styled up and to the side, framing the left side of her face. The rest of her hair was pinned up in a french-roll with a small crown placed on her head. She wore a golden, figure hugging gown that flowed down to her feet with a ring halter top. She only wore two golden bangles, no other jewelry. When the Sally in this vision was finally finished with her beautifully natural looking make up, she slowly put her make up away and took a deep shaking breath.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door to her left that made Sally whirl her head to face it. She stared at the door for a moment before taking one more deep breath and squaring her shoulders. She rose from her seat and opened the door with a smile on her face. Seeing Sonic at the door was already a painful shock in and of itself. The fact that he too was wearing a crown and a red cape was enough to send Amy into the pits of depression. But, of course, the vision wouldn't let her go here.

"Hey," he said simply. Yet the look on his face spoke volumes. Fear, love, anxiety, determination all played on his features but love dominated as he looked into Sally's eyes.

Hers held all the same feelings, although relief seemed to be there as well, "Hi."

They stood there a moment before Sally took a deep breath and said, "You sure you want to do this? We can still run for it if you want."

Sonic let out a bark of laughter, "Oh ya, just zoom right the heck out of here. Leave Mobotropolis in the dust and just live the life of rich hobos!"

Sally let out a chuckle, "Just checking. You seem nervous."

"Me? Naw... getting crowned as the next King of Acorn? Total cake walk! You should see Tails though, he's the one that's loosing it!"

Sally let out another laugh. Sonic looked on before he traced the lines of her face, the love in his eyes capturing the both of them. Just as he was about to kiss her, there was a small *ahem* behind them. They both turned quickly to see an older koala woman looking at them both with an amused look on her face.

"It's time, your Majesties."

Sonic had a deeply annoyed look on his face while Sally sported a politely wry look on her face. Sonic then held his index finger up before adding, "Just a sec."

He then took hold of Sally by her waist and dipped her into a dramatic kiss. She squeaked in protest for a moment before giggling into his mouth and returning the kiss. Just as quickly as he kissed her he swung her up into his arms and zoomed out of the room into the fading white edges of the vision.

When Amy finally came to, she was awash in shame, pain and depression. She slowly turned to face who she took with her this time, although she already knew.

She turned to face her cobalt hero, jade green eyes wide in shock and his hand frozen over her shoulder. His eyes then furrowed a moment before pulling his hand back again. He regarded his hand a moment before looking back to Amy.

"You... have a lot to think about, huh?" Sonic asked cautiously, "You sure you don't want to talk about it? You know we've seen crazier stuff before and we can help you Amy."

Amy felt tears well up in her eyes. It was one thing to deny help from her King, another to deny it directly from her friends. It was a whole other feeling having to face who she thought was the love of her life and tell him the same. She took a deep breath and willed the tears back down, but not before one escaped down the right side of her face.

"I'll be okay," she said, forcing a wobbling smile on her face, "I just need to do this on my own. I promise if I need help I'll let you know."

Sonic seemed disappointed by this answer but nodded before turning away. For some reason this hurt her more than anything. She had to watch her hero walk away for what she was determined the last time before she too walked away. No sooner did she step down from the ramp and onto the dirt ground did the ramp begin to raise. As much as she told herself not to turn back she swung her head back at the sound of the ramp raising up. When she did she saw her friends waving to her, Cream and Big having tears in their eyes. Everyone else had a grim look on their faces, as though they were never going to see her again.

"Maybe they won't," Amy thought as she waved back with more tears flowing down her face, "Maybe I won't ever find an answer to this nonsense."

She turned back before the ramp was closed completely but it was the click of the lock that set her on her first determined steps on her own, "I'm not going to find out until I try!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Woot! Fourth chapter! X3 So excited! Please keep the feedback rolling, I'd love to hear what you all think of Mercia. Let me know if there's any questions you guys have. I'm more than happy to answer anything you guys want! So here's an extra long chapter for all of you! Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>It took less than an hour of traversing the forest before Amy determined that she loved the forest.<p>

True it was hot, it was the tail end of summer, but there was constantly a fresh breeze blowing through the trees. It cooled her face even as she hiked for several hours through the forest and seemed to blow all negative thoughts out of her mind. There were multiple streams she passed by and she always stopped at each one for a break, regardless of how often she found one. She would fill her water bottle and on the third stream she stopped for a break and ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she had packed for the trip. She ate the sandwich sitting on a thick yet oddly mossy patch of grass near the base of the tree. As she ate, she forced herself to think about the journey ahead of her, rather than the friends she'd left behind.

"The trees are all deciduous instead of ever-greens. I wonder why that is?" Amy thought to herself, "_NICOLE would know.._."

"The map says the nearest town is about a half an hour's hike away from me yet. I need to keep heading south-east in order to make it to there before I can start following the roads to the capitol city. _Thank you Rotor for the compass you gave me."_

_"_It's a good thing I brought some money," she thought to herself, "If I have to I can stop at an inn for a place to rest. _Didn't Antoine used to live in Mercia?"_

_"_The stream is so nice and calm. If I'd remembered to bring my bathing suit, I would have gone for a swim! _Big__ and Cream would have loved that."_

_"_This breeze feels so soothing. _Sonic would have loved this place.__"_

Amy growled in frustration before taking her last bite of her sandwich, "Maybe I'll take a few swings with my hammer. _I bet Tails and Bunnie would have sparred with me."_

Amy let out a shriek of indignation at that last thought, "Fine maybe I will!"

She folded up her map haphazardly before stuffing it into her bag again. Amy then shoved the compass into her pocket and began her warm-up.

"Ugh, what I wouldn't give for a little music," she thought to herself as she stretched herself out, "It's so quiet out here."

That thought gave Amy pause. It was true, the forest was totally quiet. No birds, no other little furry creatures that normally inhabited the forest, nothing. Just the stream and the breeze. She couldn't even remember how long it had been like that. Was the forest naturally so quiet?

The snap of a branch to her left told her that, no, such a thing was not normal, regardless of the forest.

"Who's there?" Amy called out in warning, her ears twitching around for some other sound. Nothing moved, however, and no matter how hard Amy looked into the trees, she found nothing. Amy growled in frustration before summoning her hammer. She smirked proudly for a moment, imagining her spies gasping in surprise. She then began going through her exercises, first doing chest level swings and stopping abruptly at a specific spot. She did the same thing with high swings to the ground, stopping before she actually hit the ground, and low swings going up and swinging her hammer back around for a chest level swing then stopping. She continued this for ten minutes, trying to listen for any other movement as she was doing so. When she heard nothing, she sprouted something of an evil grin before jumping quickly forward and slamming her hammer into the nearest tree. The weight of the hammer shook the tree violently. It was enough force for someone to come crashing out of the tree and fall to the ground with an 'oomph' directly in front of Amy.

He was a young auburn badger with a wild black tuft of hair on his head. He looked to be no more than 10 years old, if that. What gave Amy slight pause (and vindication, she hadn't been going crazy) was that the kid wore a muddy brown tunic with multi-colored patches on it to match the changing colors of the trees and a rope belt around his waist that was fraying and dirty on the ends. He was poor and he looked hungry. But more than that he looked angry and determined when he faced Amy with deep brown eyes.

"M... Merry men! Git to the treasure!"

Suddenly there were five other children of about the same age as the first boy that burst out of the trees. Amy didn't get a good enough look at them, because before she knew it three had her surrounded and the badger and a beaver child had gone around her and towards her travel pack.

"Oh no you don't!" she cried out, giving a small back flip over the sparrow girl behind her and cutting off the two boys in front of her pack. She quickly put the backpack on before assessing the situation again.

"_I don't want to hurt them, they're just kids!" _She thought to herself, "_They're thieves, but they're kids."_

_"_Alright kiddies, play time is over!" Amy exclaimed and slammed her hammer to the ground, shaking it and the children, "I don't need any trouble with you. I just want to get to Spring Crest. No one needs to get hurt."

Several kids eyed her in fear but the badger, presumably the leader gave as mighty a laugh as he could manage, "Ye bassa! Yer in our turf now! Now pay yer... uh...yer..."

The beaver beside the badger piped up in a whispering voice, "Tribute? Toll? Dues?"

The badger shook his head, "Whatever! Yer loot. Give us yer loot or go toe to toe with Rob o'the Woods!"

Amy looked on in slight confusion. She was prepared for a different dialect, hell even a different language, but she wasn't quite prepared for this.

"So... you're trying to rob me?"

"We steal from the rich and give to the poor!" the sparrow piped up, "To save us from King Liam's taxes!"

"And ye'll hand your treasure over, no problems," the beaver smirked, "Or ye'll face us Merry Men."

"And ladies!" one of the other girls, a little white hedgehog piped up.

Amy frowned at this. Apparently her uncle wasn't that popular around here, King or otherwise. But maybe...

"Bassa, huh?" Amy said cautiously leaning on her hammer, "Where I'm from I'm something of a Merry Man too. We call them Freedom Fighters."

Apparently, the legend of the Freedom Fighters had spread even to here because all of the children save the badger gave a gasp and an excited smile.

"Yer a Freedom Fighter?"

"Do ya know Sonic? He's so cool and blue!"

"Do ya know Princess Sally? She's so pretty and smart!"

"I want to meet..."

"SHE'S LYING!" the badger cried out, "Have ye dobbers ever heard of the legends of the pink hedgehog? There's no such story now is there?"

The kids seemed to deflate, and even looked betrayed at Amy. Despite the hurt looks Amy couldn't help but feel a little betrayed herself.

"Geez, no stories about Amy Rose?" she murmured to herself, "That's pretty lame..."

Suddenly the faces went dark and a growl actually came out of the badger, "I knew it. Ye're a stinkin' noble! Yer a greedy little coward! Ye couldn't be friends with Sonic the Hedgehog! Take the loot!"

A cry erupted from the children and she was surrounded once more. Despite their age, Amy was ready to defend herself when the badger actually flashed a knife. Amy focused completely on him, taking swings here and there to give herself space. But the badger dodged under her swing and stabbed at Amy's side. She tried to dodge but felt the bite of the knife in her side. It burned and she could feel the blood begin to seep through her clothing. When she tried to cover her side, the boy quickly dove for her other side, when Amy kicked out and got him in the face. She was beyond livid at this point, but so were the other children. The sparrow girl picked up the knife actually threw the knife at Amy's other side. Amy twisted to the side quickly enough for the knife to slice through her other strap rather than her side again. The backpack fell to the floor with a thump and the beaver and hedgehog got to the bag and carried it between the two of them. The badger then gave Amy a maniacal laugh.

"Thank ye for the donation, m'lady!" he sneered as he gave a mock bow and ran back out through the forest, his nose bled but his chest swelled in pride. Amy threw her hammer in response but by the time the hammer reached him he and his friends had disappeared into the forest.

Amy gave a guttural growl in defeat. Part of her was glad she wasn't traveling with her friends for them to see what had happened to her in the first few hours of being in the forest alone. Part of her also recognized that if she'd taken at least one of her friends she wouldn't have been in that mess to begin with. She shook her head and looked to the cut on her side. It wasn't bleeding very badly, but it was enough to stain her dress and stung with every breath. She gave a sigh and looked around for a sharp rock to cut into her dress.

What she found was the same knife she'd been cut with. When she picked it up, it felt light in her hands and the blade was deeply polished. Amy also found something engraved on the side rather beautifully, "Give all the rights you claim for yourself."

Amy pondered this a moment before taking the knife to the hem of her dress. She found it was perfectly sharp. She then took the hem and looked around her. She felt no other presence in the woods, so she lifted her dress over her head and wrapped the fabric quickly around her waist. She put her dress back on just as quickly and took her compass out of her pocket.

"I lost the map," she told the compass, "but at least they didn't take you. Maybe they'll be more sympathetic in the village. At the very least I'll trade the knife in for some money. That'll teach that little brat!"

When she opened the compass and realized that south-east was the direction the children had gone. Amy gave a small smirk. If she faced those kids again she wasn't going to go easy on them anymore. She was a Freedom Fighter and these kids would know it!

With that in mind, Amy began her journey once more, with the thought of beating those kids into paste for all the trouble they'd caused her.

...

Amy was slightly disappointed when she didn't run into the kids again. Granted the sun was just beginning to set when she finally made it to Spring Crest, so they would probably be on their way back to their homes. Regardless, Amy gave a little sigh and began to walk to the town center. She was met with stares, both wary and curious on the way in. When she looked back at the townsfolk she wasn't all that surprised at their staring. Their clothes were every bit as patched and old as the children's were. However, they covered quite a bit more skin and fur than Amy's meager dress did. Some of the men even had the audacity to give her a little wink and a smirk. A shiver crawled up Amy's spine, but she kept her determined route towards the center, where she hoped she would find a marketplace.

What she found was small, but it would do for her needs. In the very center of the town was an old well, where several young ladies were conversing before they began staring at Amy. The marketplace, if Amy could call it that, was in the form of a large ring around the well, where there were three stalls each selling food, jewelry, or toys. Amy instead went to one of the bigger store fronts with a sign depicting a hammer and anvil. Amy figured if she was going to get the best deal on the knife she would get it from the blacksmith.

As she walked into the blacksmith's shop, the temperature went from a slightly warm summer day to almost unbearably hot. She heard the clang of metal on metal in the background and felt the drag of the heat through every pore on her body. Looking around, Amy could see a simple counter that was clean with a piece of paper and a quill pen sitting on the corner. The counter separated the two sides of the room, one a little waiting area for customers and the other side a showing area for some of the pieces the blacksmith had to offer. The second side of the room had the walls lined with swords, pick axes, knives for cooking and hunting, and shovels. It also had a huge forge against the back right corner of the room, a trough of water beside it and an anvil in front where Amy could see a slightly imposing figure hammering away at something. Amy looked to the left most corner of the second half and realized there was a staircase there.

"They probably live just upstairs," Amy thought to herself while patiently waiting for the person to be done. She didn't know a lot about being a blacksmith but she understood enough about metal that the pounding was time sensitive.

Apparently the blacksmith heard Amy even over their own pounding and called back in a surprisingly high pitched and musical voice, "I'll be right with ya! Let me just finish this and I'll help ye out!"

Amy couldn't help but feel surprised at the accent. It was a bit different from the accent of the boy in the forest. The lilt was harsher in the blacksmith's voice with more emphasis on the vowels. She was also rather surprised that the accent was so different from what she'd been expecting.

"What did I expect?" she asked herself before instantly thinking of Antoine, "I wonder why everyone's accent is so different from his? Is he maybe from a different part of Mercia?"

Amy's thought process ended with a sharp hiss and several thumping footsteps. She looked back towards the blacksmith and saw her enough to get basic features.

She was a badger, and her coloring was almost exactly like that of the boy in the forest.

"Oh boy," Amy thought to herself as she plastered on what she hoped was a friendly looking smile.

The blacksmith regarded Amy in the same way. Her hazel eyes took in Amy's form and while her lips twitched slightly, she said nothing about Amy's state of dress. She wore a simple navy blue dress with a black smock over it. Even with the smock she was covered head to toe in soot.

"What can I do for ya, dear?" she asked politely.

Amy wasted no time. She pulled out the knife from her pocket and looked the blacksmith in the eye, "I'd like to trade this in for some money, please. I was robbed in the forest today and the thieves took my clothes, food, and map. They left this behind though."

The blacksmith froze a moment before her mask fell and her face shifted between pity, fear, and finally anger.

"BARTHOLOMEW!"

The cry rang throughout the house and Amy was almost positive the rest of the square heard it, because she heard some passerby snickering about how that boy was going to get it this time. She then heard the distinct sound of pounding footsteps above her making their way to the stairs. Soon she was looking in the face of the leader of her attackers. His face went from mild concern, to recognition, surprise, and finally to fear, before he actually tried to quietly turn around.

"Ye take one step up those stairs laddy, and I'll make you regret having me chase ye around the damn shop. Now get yer sorry bum down here and explain this te me!"

Amy watched in cold satisfaction as the boy slowly turned around, as though he were being held at gun point. His face was murderous at Amy, and she could help but smile and stick her tongue out.

"You reap what you sow, brat!" she thought with glee.

The blacksmith had taken the knife from Amy at this point and slammed it pointed side down into the counter.

"Mind tellin' me what yer father's knife is doing with this young lady?" the Blacksmith asked sweetly but firmly, "And you best mind yer answer because she has quite a story to tell. I hope yours is just as good."

The boy was silent for a moment before he mumbled something.

"What was that, son, we can't hear ye."

"She stole it."

Amy almost exploded in outrage and indignity before the mother burst out laughing. It wasn't amused in the least. It was cold and maniacal, worse than anything Eggman himself could belt out. It stopped Amy cold in her tracks.

"Oh I see. Clever wench, she is," she said with a razor sharp smile, "Yes, I can tell she stole it because she stabbed herself in the side with it after she smacked ya in the face? Is that where the bloody nose came from? Because earlier you told me it was from little Anna tripping you up in the forest for teasing her. Now which time were ye lying now or before?"

The boy seemed to break out in a cold sweat but before he could answer his mother continued her tirade.

"And that thing you said you found in the forest? That busted up bag? If we opened it now, am I going te find women's clothes in there? Maybe a bite te eat and a map?"

The boy hung his head but it wasn't in shame. He was angry and afraid at having been caught, "It's hers."

The woman stared at her son for a few moments before she quietly murmured, "Boy, ye've got ten seconds to get that bag back downstairs for me te fix up before I fix you. 10!"

Bartholomew took off at a sprint, scrambling back up the stairs as his mother continued to count down. She got all the way down to three before they heard the boy scrambling again back down the stairs. He made it just in time for his mother to reach one before he shoved the pack into her hands.

"There we are, was that so hard?" The badger woman grinned, "Now bring me two stools and set them up so we can discuss your punishment. Then yer to sit at the table upstairs until I come te get'cha. If ye aren't there when I come upstairs, we'll have ourselves a grand old hide and seek game. Understand?"

The boy nodded sullenly before turning to grab the stools. He then angrily started dragging them across the floor before his mother called out, "Sweetums, we have company. Don't mess with our pretty floors and pick them up proper."

The boy almost grumbled before correcting himself and letting go of one of the stools to pick one up. He then set it gently down before his mother before turning. His mother had other ideas.

"Now where's your manners, Barty? The guest needs her chair first."

Bartholomew clenched his fists before turning again and picking the chair up once more. He stomped around the counter and back to Amy before slamming the stool down. Just as he turned around Amy gave a sweet smile and murmured, "Thank you."

This stopped the boy dead in his tracks and he seemed about to turn and give Amy a peace of his mind before he heard his mother clear her throat. Bartholomew shot his mother a look but it withered and died in the face of the glare she was giving him. He growled in frustration before turning back to Amy and grounding out, "Yer welcome."

Amy couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the boy. Only a bit, considering he had hurt and robbed her, but the sympathy was still there.

Finally Bartholomew had gently set down the stool for his mother and was turning to go up the stairs when she sat and cleared her throat one more time.

"Barty... one more thing."

He visibly flinched before he turned around, an ugly mix of fear and loathing on his face, "Yes mother?"

"You need to apologize to our guest," she said lightly, but the edge in her voice was still there, "Or did you forget that you wronged the girl?"

That seemed a bit too much for Bartholomew because he cried out in protest, "BUT SHE DESERVED IT!"

"Oh really young man?" the woman got up imposingly, her voice rising dangerously to meet her son's volume, "And tell me what this damnable villain did to ye that she deserved a shiv to her side and all her things stolen from her very back? Because she's a foreigner? Because she dresses and speaks differently? WHY BOY?"

"SHE'S A ROSE, MA!" Bartholomew bellowed, "She's a stinkin' noble and she's a coward and a liar and..."

"You shut yer damn trap and git yer sorry bum upstairs, lad," his mother said lowly. Despite her quiet voice, her visage was that of darkness and pain to come, "Before I set ye there meself."

Bartholomew seemed about to say something else, like he felt his mother had betrayed him by not understanding his reasons. Instead he shook his head and bolted back upstairs.

The mother took a moment before she sat back down. She immediately pulled out a thick spool of thread and a needle from under the counter and picked up the backpack.

"Ya best be careful who you tell that to from now on lass," she said with an uneasy smile, "If the nobles hear you've been impersonating royalty it'll get ugly pretty quickly."

Amy wasn't sure she could take the bait here. True, it was clear that no one seemed to like her uncle or the nobility in general. It would be advantageous to lie and say she wasn't the King's niece. Still, she knew that she couldn't really lie to the woman. Especially if the kid, or worse, someone outside heard she was impersonating royalty she would probably get into even bigger trouble with the guards.

Besides, it was always better to be honest.

"I'm actually am, believe it or not," Amy said with an equally uneasy smile, "I've been living abroad in the Acorn Kingdom but I was asked to come back and see the king. I'm not sure what for, but I'm pretty sure it's important."

This didn't seem to help the badger any. If anything it made her clutch the pack more and shake a bit. Finally her eyes fell and she began to work on the bag.

"I-I see. Please forgive my son's rudeness m'lady," she said in a low simpering tone, "I'll be makin' sure he doesn't make that mistake again. And he won't be getting that knife until he's married."

Amy was a bit shocked by her sudden change in tone. She realized the woman's hazel eyes shifted, even as she worked on the bag. She even seemed to tremble a bit, when Amy didn't speak. She was beginning to regret being honest.

"He'll be okay," Amy said finally, "I think he was just sad that he thought I lied about being a Freedom Fighter. Not that that excuses highway robbery but I'm pretty sure that's where the liar and coward thing came from. Sometimes even I can't believe I'm with the Freedom Fighters."

The woman furrowed her brows but said nothing beyond, "I see."

Amy couldn't help but feel that she was the one in trouble now. She'd heard of the king's taxes but she honestly didn't know how bad they were, much less how much it affected people. King Max's taxes weren't particularly high but she'd never heard of anyone shooting a fearful look like that at him or Sally.

"Not unless they did something worth being afraid for," she thought with chagrin.

After several moments in silence Amy decided she'd finally had enough, "I'm Amy, by the way. Amy Rose. What's your name?"

"Martha," the woman answered immediately, "Martha Harte."

Amy nodded but was met with more silence. Martha didn't seem to tremble as much anymore but her mouth began to work as though something was bothering her. Eventually she was done with the first strap and moved onto the second. The silence permeated the room and made Amy that much more uncomfortable. Finally she decided she'd had enough and tried again.

"The knife you had," Amy commented, "With the inscription on it. I like the saying on there. And the engraving is very pretty. Did you do that?"

Martha seemed to pause at that, "A...aye m'lady. When my late husband asked me te marry him. I made and gave him that knife as a wedding present."

"Where did the saying come from?" Amy asked, "It sounds like something my friend, Sally, would say. Maybe Sonic, but Sonic's not a guy for pretty words you know..."

"Most men aren't... m'lady,"

Amy smiled, she was starting to relax a bit more, "Just Amy, please? Ya, I'm a noble, I guess, but I'm really not that stuck up."

This brought a pause to Martha's movements before she sighed and looked Amy in the eyes.

"Ye really are a foreigner, aren't ye?"

Amy nodded, "I'm just trying to find some answers. Apparently I'm related to the king, but I don't really know how close we used to be. I don't even have any memories of anyone from my family. But the way his letters sounded it seemed like he was close, maybe..."

Martha regarded her a moment before turning back to her work, "That explains quite a bit actually. May I speak freely with you, Lady Amy?"

Amy smiled, "If you stop calling me m'lady or lady."

Amy lost that smile the moment Martha looked her in the eyes again. This time there was less fear and more of the hardness that she'd had when speaking to her son.

"Then listen, because I can only say this once and I can't imagine anyone givin' ya this lesson fer free without ye getting a few more wounds, or worse. The way things work... wherever yer from, don't apply here in Mercia.

"If what ye say is true about bein' in the Freedom Fighters, then yer used to workin' close with yer nobles and even yer royals. That's cute and apparently it works well, but our nobles here don't want to be seen with the likes of me or me son. There is a definite line between the common people and the nobles who lead them, and all the nobles want that to be seen clear as crystal. If anyone saw you like that, knew ye were robbed by me son and ye were common, that's one thing. I would be allowed to teach my son the lesson he needs to learn and if he did it again, I'd wash my hands of the matter and let the local guard deal with it. Reggie is the local guard captain. He's a good sort and would treat my son the way he needed to be to teach him the lesson if I can't.

"But yer not common. Yer a noble, whether ye like it or not. Yer of royal blood and if anyone else nearabouts knew that little nugget, my son would be strung up on the noose tomorrow morning for the insult he payed ye. The captain wouldn't have a choice, I wouldn't have a choice, and my son would be dead for what he did to ye.

"Now we're lucky, 'cause the other children were involved, so the other parent's will keep their holes shut about it at least. But if a noble had heard, especially one trying to get in favor of the King for 'bringing justice to a poor noble maiden like yerself against a heartless brigand'? My son would be gone and I'd have to watch the last most precious thing in my life get taken from me.

"Do ye understand now, m'lady?" Martha finished, "Why I can't call ye by yer first name? Why I can't treat you like a commoner even if ye were raised one? The moment someone finds out yer related to the King, that's all that will matter. And everythin' will fall into place accordingly."

Amy shook with a silent rage but nodded her understanding, "That sounds terrible."

Martha paused a moment before she snapped the thread with her teeth, "It's the way of the world m'lady. No one said it were fair."

She then handed the backpack to Amy and added, "If ye don't like it, I would suggest keeping the fact that yer a Rose te yerself."

Amy gingerly grabbed the backpack and nodded with a curt 'thanks'. She then shouldered the bag and asked, "Do you know if there's an inn nearby or something?"

Martha nodded, "Follow the road south fer about a mile. Ye'll hit the Dove and Turtle inn on the left of the road. They'll set ye up nicely."

"Thank you," Amy said, "For everything."

"My pleasure," Martha said curtly, "But be prepared. Bandits roam that road. You'll want to get to the inn quickly before the sun sets or ye'll be a sittin' duck."

Amy thanked her once more and said goodbye. She turned and left the blacksmiths, blinking to adjust to the light now shining in her face. It was sunset already, and Amy's side was really starting to feel sore.

"Just wait," she told herself as she made a left to the south, "I'll have a bath soon! With a chance at clean clothes and a clean bed too."

"I'll need to change my bandages soon too," she thought, "But it's only a mile down the road, it should only take me 15 minutes tops. I should be fine!"

But even as Amy walked past the town square and back into the woods on the path, she couldn't help but feel more eyes on her.

...

Amy rolled her eyes in aggravation. She had been walking not even ten minutes, when she heard the sound of wood snapping again.

"OK seriously? You guys aren't even trying anymore!" she called out, "If you want to get in more trouble with your parents, fine by me; but I'm not going easy on you this time!"

She gave pause, however, when instead of silence she heard dark, distinctly adult chuckling.

"She's a feisty one, ain't she, Hovis?"

Amy paled, but widened her stance and tightened her hold on her backpack.

"Oh, that she is, Gavin. That she is."

Amy growled when she saw that she was surrounded by four men. Two beavers, one forest green and one navy blue, a yellow woodchuck, and a rat. The rat had been the second one to speak, with his protruding yellow teeth and steely grey fur. His clothes were a torn and simple green tunic with no patches and he wore brown pants beneath with no shoes. His green eyes danced with mirth and horrible intentions when Amy met them. They were meant to make Amy shiver in fear; if not his eyes then at least his men.

All she wanted to do was bash them all upside the head and walk away.

Amy gave a threatening smile of her own, "I'm guessing you're Hovis?"

This seemed to surprise the others around Hovis, but the rat simply laughed, "Oh aye, Hovis Misttail. But you may call me Hovis, m'lady. And we be simple merry men in the army of Rob o'the Woods, asking for a humble donation from a fair maiden."

Amy rolled her eyes, "Look. I already dealt with the last bunch of your 'merry men'. I've made my donation so just buzz off!"

Hovis gave a cruel laugh and held out his hand, "Lass... this ain't a request. Hand over yer goods; or we take'em... all of em..."

He eyed her up and down and this time Amy shivered. But rather than handing her things over she gave a snarl and summoned her hammer. She didn't even wait for someone to move this time. Instead she lunged straight for the biggest man, the yellow woodchuck to her right. His brown eyes widened in shock and he barely had time to cock his arm back before Amy was on him. She gave a great shriek and heaved her hammer up and uppercut the woodchuck. The guy actually launched in the air with the force of her blow. When he fell to the floor, he could only manage a pained groan before he was out like a light.

The two beavers and Hovis looked on in shock at their fallen friend. It was their turn to flinch in fear when Amy turned, fire in her emerald eyes, taking deep heaving breaths, not in fatigue but in anger. Her side was starting to bleed again, but she didn't feel a thing.

"I've been robbed already," she ground out, "Ever since I came to Mercia it's been nothing but archaic stupidity and selfish bullshit. So here's what you're going to do. You're gonna walk away. Slowly. Or I'm going to knock every. Single. One of you out like a freaking LIGHT!"

The beavers seemed to shake for a moment before they gulped and looked to Hovis. The rat was shocked and shaking as well but took a deep breath and glared at the beavers beside him, "What the hell are ye waitin' fer. TAKE HER DOWN!"

Their eyes widened but the beavers nodded and ganged up on Amy, tanned and muscled arms up to grab her. Amy would have none of this and dove to her right around one of the beavers and quickly swinging her hammer around to knee level. They heard a sickening crack of the kneecap going out before the blue beaver was down, rolling on the dirt path in agony.

But Amy wasn't done yet. When the green beaver realized what she had done, he gave an enraged growl and came bowling after her. She charged forward to meet him. She jumped onto the stomach of his fallen friend and flipped over him. Before he could turn to face her again, she'd swung one final time and caught him in the side, fracturing his ribs. He gave a gasp and knelt clutching his side. Amy took the opportunity to smash her hammer upside his head. He crumpled to the floor as well, groaning beside his friends.

Now Amy turned back to the rat, who was visibly shaking in fear. To him, she looked the picture of one of the old vengeful warrior gods, with all of her anger pointed straight at him.

"Go... away," Amy growled, "NOW!"

With that the rat gave a little cry before scrambling away. Leaving Amy a panting and sweating mess. She gave a little 'hmph' before letting her hammer disappear and making her way back down the road. Her wound was bleeding freely now and it was starting to pulse with the pain. Amy grit her teeth against it and kept telling herself, "When I get to the inn, I'll fix it. When I get to the inn, I'll fix it."

Still she couldn't stop herself from hissing at odd intervals or murmuring, "Ow ow ow ow ow." under her breath. Finally, after another ten minutes she was at the inn. She almost teared up in relief when she made her way inside the large log cabin-looking inn.

When she went inside, she saw a large dining area where there were about a dozen people already eating by a warm, crackling fire. The chatter was a bit loud but pleasant to listen to. Amy looked up to the walls and saw a few paintings of local natural features and a few family crests and portraits of people she didn't know. To the left of the fireplace against the wall was a staircase that led up and deeper into the inn. Altogether the place exuded warmth and welcome. Amy instantly felt safe here.

Or at least she did until someone finally caught sight of her and the dining area fell to silence. Amy blushed and shifted uncomfortably before she called out to no one in particular, "Um... I'd... like to get a room for the night please?"

Instantly a young orange dove scrambled up to her with a concerned look in her blue eyes. Despite the fact that she wore a floor length brown dress she moved quickly to Amy and gently grabbed Amy's gloved hand with her own gloved hand. Amy tried to flinch away in fear but when she wasn't taken by any visions, her eyes widened and her heart stilled.

"Oh ye poor dear, come with me and we'll get ye all set up," she crooned. However the next second she whipped her head around and cried out in her loudest voice, "JACKY! Where's Doctor Finn? We need him ta take a look at this slasher! And find Prim! Tell her te draw up some water fer the doctor!"

Amy blushed as she was led firmly away upstairs. When they reached the top of the stairs they continued forward into a curling hallway leading to different rooms. Amy was led straight into the fourth one. She had maybe two seconds to take in small bedroom with the window facing directly over the twin bed before she was told to sit on it. She was then told to take off her backpack and her dress for the doctor and the older brown bear practically tumbled into the room. He took one look at Amy as she was pulling her dress up before he gave a hiss of sympathy.

"My God lass, who'd ye go and piss off?" he asked as he turned to address the dove, "Jenny, love, grab me some water so we can clean this up and see how bad it truly is?"

"Prim's already grabbing it fer us," the dove answered, "She'll be up in a moment, she's right fast with the well."

As if on cue, another young dove came in through a door Amy hadn't noticed to her left. This dove was black with auburn hair held back in her braid. She was a bit bigger than her companion, Jenny, but she very briskly set the water in front of the doctor without a word. The doctor barely nodded his thanks before Prim was off again, supposedly to grab more water. At this, Jenny wordlessly pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to the doctor. The doctor took it and addressed Amy once more.

"Ye never answered how you got this lass. What happened."

Amy teetered on telling him the truth. About the children earlier that afternoon and how they'd gotten to her. Then she remembered Martha's look and her warning about the world... She decided that story was too embarrassing.

"There's three men lying by the road in the forest about ten minutes north of here," she decided, "There's a fourth one, a rat named Hovis, running around in there too."

The bear's eyes widened and he paused a moment before he continued, "You... you took on Gavin?"

Amy raised a brow, "Was that one of the beavers or the woodchuck? They didn't exactly stop to introduce themselves. Except to say they were 'merry men'."

This time Jenny gave a gasp and placed her hands on her mouth, "Ye took on the Hayden Brothers _and _Gavin!? How did you survive?"

Amy told the story as the doctor cleaned the wound and applied a poultice. Once that was done, he bandaged it up and gave a relieved sigh.

"Yer lucky the wound looked worse than it actually was. It'll be fine in a short while. Just make sure te change the bandages twice a day or so. Yer young, so it should close up after about two weeks if yer easy on it. Here's the poultice I used. Apply a little dab when you change the bandage. Your slasher should be completely healed a'fore ye need more of the stuff."

Amy thanked the doctor and he walked away, leaving a small jar of the medicine in her pack. As he left Prim came back, carrying a tray of stew with some bread and a glass of water. Amy accepted the food graciously before Prim left with a nod.

"Ye'll have to excuse Prim," Jenny smiled, "She don't talk much. But she's glad yer safe too. I can't wait to tell her yer story; she goes mad for tales of women in armor!"

Amy couldn't help but laugh through a mouthful of bread, "Some armor! My cloths are all ripped to shreds and apparently I look like a hooker to everyone!"

"Ah... a what now?"

"Oh uh... nothing. I just look really bad," Amy smiled, "Thanks so much for the room. How much for everything?"

Jenny quickly waved her hands, "Don't worry about that. Ye've been through enough and ye should get some rest. It's all on the house fer tonight. After that if'n ye want to stay, we'll discuss payment."

Amy's eyes widened in the gesture but gave a big smile nonetheless, "T... thank you so much!"

The dove shook her head, an oddly sad smile on her face, "No worries deary, just get some sleep. Ye'll be right as rain in the morning."

Amy was only halfway through the bowl of stew when she felt herself growing sleepy. She gave a great yawn and set the bowl and tray down on the floor. Her vision suddenly wavered and her eyes began to feel like they were weighed down.

"I must have been more tired than I thought," she decided. But then another 'wave' of sleepiness hit her and she began to feel her heart pound, "Wait..."

She suddenly couldn't help but feel the soup had tasted funny. At first she had thought it was because of a recipe she'd never had. Amy took a closer look at the remaining bowl of stew but could no longer concentrate on anything without her vision going out of focus... She wanted to move. Her mind began to panic but her body was shutting down and trying to drag her mind with it. First it was her legs and waist that made her fall to the side, shifting the bowl and tray to spill it over the floor. Then her arms and hands gave out and everything below her neck felt numb and disconnected. Finally just as she was about to go completely out of focus, she saw several looming figures walk into the room through the bathroom door as Prim had before. The last thing she heard was one of them say, "Damn, What a mess..."

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><p>Please read and review! Let me know what you think of Mercia so far!<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm going to be honest with everyone, if only because people seem to think pairings will be involved with this. I'm not going to be doing anything pairing wise for a while, at least where Amy is concerned. It will stay that way at least until the epilogue or a sequel, if there's a sequel. This is a story about Amy finding herself and her place in the world. It would be a bit silly to have her get paired with someone during a journey of self discovery. Especially when her heart belongs to Sonic and no one else. Better to give her a free heart and a direction in her life rather than have her chained to Sonic for the rest of her life. If she chooses Sonic again, it'll be because she loves him and wants him to be a part of _her _life; not because she has no other choice emotionally.**

* * *

><p>A<em>my felt herself getting pulled between several visions. It was a terrible, nauseating cacophony of a dream. First she was in a chapel, what looked to be a lop dressed in a simple white robe beside a sparrow, looking at each other with loving eyes. She was pulled away as a tawny owl in friar's robes was saying, "You may now kiss the bride!"<em>

_She then got pulled into what looked like a large chapel, the same owl from the original vision humming to himself as he read over a scroll at the podium, before stopping and musing at the scroll in deep interest. He suddenly stopped reading and carefully but briskly picked up the scroll and ran for the door._

_Amy didn't know what was going on in the last one, but she remembered the woodchuck she'd taken down earlier. Gavin sat curled up in a corner of a jail cell, trembling and Amy could hear him quietly sobbing to himself. That was right up until two guards came up from behind him and he cried, "I'M INNOCENT! PLEASE I'LL TELL YE ALL YA NEED TO KNOW JUST DON'T GIVE ME THE NOOSE!"_

_..._

"...longer until the _lady_ begins ta stir?"

Amy struggled not to give a groan. Her head was pounding and all she wanted was quiet. But even in this semi-conscious state she was aware of her need to stay quiet, listen, and figure out where she was, who was talking, and how to get out.

"Jack always puts in way too much of the stuff," a distinctly female voice answered, "If she don't wake in the next half hour, we're gonna have to get the smelling salts out. We don't get nothin' fer her if she's conked out like that."

"If it's all the same te ye, I'd rather not be there when she wakes up," replied the other voice, "She did a number on Gavin and his gang. She's a right monster she is."

Amy recognized that voice. It was Hovis, to her right if she remembered correctly. She couldn't help but feel morbidly amused by his fear. He'd get another helping of that if she could just wake up all the way; and get out of her bonds. She realized that she was tied by her wrists and her ankles. Not a hog tie, but enough to make it difficult to do more than hobble if she needed to.

"I'll have to look around for a knife or something," Amy thought as she discreetly felt for her bracelets, "Find my backpack and get out of wherever here is. At least I can still use my hammer."

"What are ye so afraid of?" the woman immediately beside him quipped, "She's unarmed! And what the hell were ye talking about a hammer? There weren't none in the room she was in or her pack."

"She pulled it out of the air she did," Hovis insisted, "How else could she have taken out Gavin and the boys? Her hands?"

"I've heard more far-fetched stories, like pulling hammers out with a wave of yer hand," the woman giggled, "Is that the only way ye can deal with yer botching the kidnappin'? By pretending she were armed to the teeth? Four on one and you and yer gang can't handle one little girl."

"She's a witch and a demon I tells ye," Hovis continued, "Believe what ye want, ye'll see when she wakes up. Or did ye forget what Gavin, Bow and the friar saw when they tried to reach for her?"

"They were imagining it," the girl commented

"All three? Even Bow and the Friar? Now who's lying ta themselves? I could understand Gavin makin' up his story but the Friar don't speak nothin' but the truth. Why do ya think they all insisted on bringing her in mattress and all through the damn woods like a palanquin carrying the Queen o'the Realm?"

"I think ye just don't want to admit there's a normal woman out there that can take out you and yer muscle men. Rob's still mad about that malarkey yer men pulled in Stone's Cross."

"If he don't like how I do business he can find more 'merry men' elsewhere. Men who are willing to deal with the supernatural if ya ask me. There's a reason the King wants ta see that girl."

"Sure, if by business you mean beggin' for free love from a brothel," Amy could feel the girl rolling her eyes, "Then tryin te beat the snot out of all the women there because they knew better than te give themselves up to 'merry men' fer free. I'm surprised Rob didn't throw ye out right then. Then again it might have been because you and yer men left with black and blue balls."

The woman laughed but Hovis only growled in response, "They ganged up on us! They was asking fer it."

"Fer a price ye was too cheap ta pay. And don't use that line on me ye old codger; I'll whoop you up quicker than any whore or demon!"

Soon the room was filled with only Hovis' grumbling and the woman eventually sighed. Amy felt a gentle hand on her neck and willed herself not to flinch at the slightly cold gloved hand. It couldn't be helped however as Amy felt herself pulling the woman into yet another disorienting vision.

_It was snowing outside, but the clearing they were in was filled with young mobians practicing with staves. In the front was an older lop leading them through the motions. Amy instantly recognized her from the wedding vision as the bride. She was a cream colored lop with black tips on her long ears and gold earrings on the right ear. The left ear was a bit torn on the end and so no earring was in there. She continued to call out different strikes when suddenly arrows began hailing on them from behind the lop. One got her on the shoulder and she cried out to retreat. Most of the trainees had gotten out of the clearing but several were peppered with arrows and staining the snow red. The lop was one of them, before she was surrounded by what Amy had to guess were soldiers. Amy couldn't see their faces but from the way they handled the lop she could tell it was with a heavy heart that they captured her. There was a deep respect in the way that they handled her body. One took off a glove and checked for a pulse._

_The soldier gave a saddened sigh, "Their majesties will not like this..."_

Suddenly Amy was pulled back out of the vision and it was all she could manage not to cry out, flinch or vomit. She forced herself to settle down, even though there was a slight trembling to her that she just couldn't stop.

"Ya think that's all made up now?" Hovis chided, "Or are ya gonna listen next time old Hovis tells ya sommat?"

Amy heard the girl waver, who she suspected was the lop in the vision. She heard her shake her head and grumble something about talking to Rob. Amy heard the footsteps from her bed to the door. Not many but she heard absolutely no steps after the door closed. Good.

She heard Hovis snort before he shifted in his chair and mumbled something about witches and stubborn women. She heard something strange then. Like someone was cutting into a fruit. Was he biting into it or...

No, it sounded like he was cutting into it then eating it...

Amy couldn't help the small smile growing on her face. She had a plan. Time to execute it!

Amy quietly but gently tested her own strength. She had to do this in one fluid movement or risk someone hearing her or worse, Hovis fighting back. She rolled her shoulders and gently wiggled everything from her fingers to her toes. She was happy to see she was unharmed, if a bit stiff. Her side felt much better though she realized it would still be a while before it was completely healed. When she risked a peek, she saw she was still in her own clothes, torn and bloody.

"I'll have to find other clothes soon," she thought to herself, "I already stand out like a sore thumb, I don't need that when I'm trying to run for my life here."

She then gently tested the bonds on her ankles. They were firm but gentle in their grip. It would be more than a little difficult to handle her hammer when the strength of it all depended on her stance.

"I'll just have to take a swing at it!" she decided.

She took one more moment to be sure where exactly Hovis was in the room before she made her move. In one smooth motion she opened her eyes, swung her legs firmly off the bed and to the ground and summoned her hammer. Hovis heard the noise from the bed and got out a small terrified squeak before Amy brought her hammer down on his head. He fell like a ton of bricks. Amy almost followed him. The room bucked in her vision and she retched from the dizziness of her immediate movement. She almost vomited, but was able to hold it in. Her head began to pound with a vengeance as she tried to cradle it and sat back down.

"I don't have time for this!" she groaned, "I gotta get out of here!"

Still, she waited out the dizziness. After about 2 minutes she felt it go away and she slowly stood up this time. She nearly tripped again when she remembered that her ankles were still tied together. She fell back to the bed with a thump and gave another groan. Amy then began to search the floor for the knife. Thankfully it didn't take too long, Hovis was still holding it. She smiled at her luck and gently took it from his grasp. She eyed the knife and to her disappointment she realized the thing wasn't as sharp as Martha's knife. She rolled her eyes at this and began awkwardly sawing away at the bonds on her wrists anyway. That took another five minutes. Amy would fearfully eye the door every 30 seconds before she went back to her ropes. When she finally managed to break through, she began working on her ankle bonds. She was happy to see it was much easier to get rid of those than the ones on her wrists. Amy firmly massaged her ankles before gingerly standing again. This time there was much less dizziness and just the slightest twinge of nausea. She sighed in relief and headed for the door.

As she reached for it, however, it began to open. Amy began to panic and lunged to hide behind the door as it swung open into the room. When it opened, she saw through the crack that it was the lop by herself.

"Rob's waitin' on a meetin' te start," she grumbled, "You'd think this'd be important enough ta..."

She paused as she took the entire room into view this time. She rushed forward to Hovis, gently but firmly cradling his head.

Amy's eyes widened and she cursed under her breath. She didn't have much of a choice now. She closed the door firmly before taking a wide swing to the lop's head.

The lop wasn't nearly as slow as Gavin or the Hayden Brothers, however. She curled up and rolled out of the way before the door completely shut. She rolled under the table for cover, taking the time to analyse Amy as she was readying for another swing. But rather than taking the swing, Amy held her hammer above her head.

"We don't have to fight," Amy murmured, "If you just let me go, I won't fight you. We'll go our separate ways and no one has to get hurt."

The lop waited there a moment before she rolled her eyes, "What, am I too low fer ye to bribe me fer yer freedom or sommat?"

This time Amy rolled her eyes, "Just because you people say I'm a noble doesn't mean I'm rich. I'm a fighter before anything else. Now either let me go, or I'll knock you into next week."

"'Fraid I can't let that happen lass," the lop said as she lunged forward into another roll, "So let's play a little game."

She overshot Amy and her downward swing and stopped in front of a wooden pole leaning against the stone wall. Amy had brought her hammer up for another swing by the time the lop was up and positioned against Amy with her pole. Amy swung her hammer for a middle blow, to keep her at bay. But the lop had other plans. She vaulted herself across the room and slapped her pole against Amy's bad side. Amy gave a great cry and crumpled at the blow, but the lop didn't stop there. She pulled the pole back and swung at Amy's fingers. A loud crack followed by another cry from Amy, resonated around the room. Amy refused to let go of her hammer, however. She grit her teeth, eyes watering from the pain of her now bleeding side and aching fingers, and clenched her hammer that much harder. The lop was making another swing, this time going for her feet to put her on the floor. Amy instead jumped over the swing and brought her hammer up over her head. Amy gave a horrendously enraged screech before she brought the hammer down over the lop's head. There was a fleeting moment of doom in the lop's eyes before she crumpled to the floor with a flump and a final crack from her pole.

Amy's breathing was labored as her senses came back down from battle mode. She took a deep shuddering breath to calm her nerves but flinched at the sting on her side. She gave a groan when she realized she was bleeding again. She looked around the room to see if she could find something to stop the bleeding with only to realize her back pack wasn't here.

"Shoot!" she thought, "I have to search the castle just to find my stuff! I'll never get out of here without that map at least..."

She could feel her anger and frustration mounting inside of her before she took another deep breath, "I don't have time to get mad right now. Focus on getting this fixed up first, then figure out where my stuff is."

She looked back down at the lop and the long intricate teal and purple robe she was wearing. Namely she was staring at the scarf and cape the girl was wearing.

"Perfect! Amy thought as she reached down for Hovis' knife and the scarf. As quickly as the dull knife would allow, she tore the scarf into thick ribbons and bandaged herself up. She then quickly searched the room for something to cover herself up. The room itself, while large enough for a short battle to take place, was fairly sparse. The table that Hovis sat at was destroyed, the bed Amy sat on spartan in its appearance and a dresser sitting against the wall near a window. Amy searched the dresser and found a long, brown monk's robe with a hood over it. Amy gave a smirk at her good luck before she put the robe over her head. It was large, almost hanging like a tent over her form. It pooled down over her feet, to the point where Amy had to hold it up to walk comfortably. She rolled her eyes and put the hood up. She was about to walk out the door when she chanced a look out the small window of her temporary prison.

Her eyes widened at the sight of a company of mobians below her. She must have been on the third story of a decrepit fort. The lawn below her held about thirty other mobians, going through the motions of a sword stance. There were ten more off to the side of them shooting at targets with bows and arrows.

"How the heck am I going to get out of here?" she thought as fear gripped her heart.

She allowed herself to stare for a moment before she shook her head and pulled her hood down more, "One thing at a time. I have to find my pack then I can worry about getting out of here. "

With that she made her way out the door and into the long stone corridor. She kept her head down and allowed her eyes to shift here and there. As she continued down the hall, she found a door to her right. She entered a large room with maps hanging on the stone walls. There were no windows in this room. In fact save for the maps there were no other discerning features in the room. There were no chairs, tables, bookshelves, nothing but the maps hanging on the stone walls. Amy gazed over the maps and found they were far more detailed than the one she had gotten from Rotor and Tails. She smiled as she took down one with nobility border lines and one with a map of the capital city, Tamworth. She placed both in the pocket of her dress beneath the robe and felt her compass sitting in her pocket with the maps.

"They let me keep it?" she thought with a smile, "Perfect! I'll call them once I come over and they can help me get to the capitol!"

That thought made her feel guilty for a moment. What would happen if she got them caught in another vision? What if it got worse?

"What if I get stuck in Mercia with no way of getting home afterwards?" she thought to herself angrily, "I should have brought someone with me! At least Sonic would have..."

She felt tears on the edge of her eyes that she swore were because of the pain in her side. She wiped them away and made her way back to the door.

She came to a complete stop, however, when she heard the door knob begin to jiggle. Her heart froze and she looked wildly around for somewhere to hide. The room gave no mercy, however, and she began to panic.

"Do I just go out guns blazing or..."

However, when the door swung open, she instead turned her body and began to examine one of the other maps, one that showed one of the noble lands, Westercourt, owned by the Sayge family who apparently dealt in spices. It was a larger piece of land just to the west of the capitol, according to the map. _There was a series of heavy footsteps that stopped just behind her. _The legend on the map showed that they had an incredible system of underground tunnels for use throughout the landscape and around certain towns and _why wasn't this person leaving already!?_

Amy was just about to look at a different map before she heard a deep, lilting voice, "Ah, so, yer a geography lover then, eh lass?"

She whirled to life at that. Amy summoned her hammer and swung around to meet him but the man simply dodged backwards. It was then that Amy got a good look at him. He was a crimson red hedgehog that stood taller than her by about 4 inches. He was much older than her by at least 10 years. Still he had a youthful, lanky build. While this was rather common for their species what muscles he had were wiry and Amy knew if she got caught, there'd be no escaping his grip. He wore a loose hooded leather vest with matching patched gloves, shorts and cream and brown hiking boots. While he stood ready to fight, he had no weapons and an amused smile on his face and his emerald green eyes sparkled with mirth.

"Easy there, lass, I'm here to cut a deal with ye."

Amy snarled at that, "Ya right, want me to make another donation?!"

She gave another swing at him, but he refused to fight back. Instead he dodged all of her swings at an incredible speed while whooping in glee as though he were dancing. This infuriated Amy more and she began to swing even harder. After about a minute straight of Amy chasing the hedgehog around the now closed room, she began to feel herself grow fatigued. Still she gritted her teeth and continued to swing, even as the hedgehog's eyes suddenly widened and narrowed in concern. Finally she gave one more mighty swing before he dodged again. This time, however, he dropped, holding himself up with both of his hands and swung his feet around. Amy tried to jump out of the way but the swing caught the bottom of her feet before she could jump high enough. She landed flat on her back and her head pounded against the stone floor along with her hammer. She didn't hear her hammer disappear over the sound of the pounding in her head. But she heard the other hedgehog begin to speak to her.

"Listen lass, that was fun and all but ye need ta know yer limits. Did you realize that you were bleedin' through yer clothes again or were you trying to get yer-self killed?"

Instead of answering, Amy cursed under her breath and tried to get up. Instead she felt a serious amount of weight on her waist. When she looked up she realized the hedgehog was _sitting on her._

"Get... OFF!" Amy tried to cry out and wriggle out but the hedgehog sat stubbornly on her waist his arms crossed and his booted feet on either side of her face.

"Not until ye hear what I have te say," he shot back, "Yer no good to me dead and yer too young to be thinking about killin' yer-self."

Amy growled at him but she understood the compromising position she was in, "What do you want?"

The hedgehog clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "Right-o! Ta business. SO! I'm Rob. This stronghold is a temporary camp fer me and my Merry Men. And yer gonna help us survive the upcoming winter."

Amy rolled her eyes, "What do you want?"

"First thing's first, we need ta get ye patched up. Thorn's not too happy about you messin' with her scarf so I'm gonna get you some real bandages and get her scarf off of ya. Then I'm gonna get ya somethin' ta eat, 'cause, I'm pretty sure the last thing ya ate was from last night and it's already the afternoon."

Amy took in an impatient breath, "And after all that then what?"

"Then we'll play a little game to decide if you can go free or not."

Amy's heart almost stopped and her eyes widened before they scrunched together to examine the hedgehog, Rob, a little more closely, "What."

He nodded, "It's only fair I give ye a chance ta escape. I mean, more than all the damage you did so far. Ye've chosen yer games with Thorn and Hovis, but ya haven't tried a game with me."

Amy raised a brow, "What's the catch?"

"I just want ya te eat and get bandaged up before we play. Yer hurt, tired, hungry and I imagine more than a little scared, so I'm not gonna count this little scuffle as our game. Do we have a deal?"

Rob held his hand out to Amy for a shake. She in turn, eyed it warily before asking, "And if I refuse?"

Rob rolled his eyes, "We'll still feed ya. We'll still take care of your slasher. Ye'll automatically forfeit yer game for the day and I won't challenge ye again until tomorrow. I'll even let ye keep the maps ya took."

Amy blushed a bit before she let out a growl and grabbed his hand, "Fine."

Rob gave a far too familiar smirk for Amy's liking before he shook it firmly, "Right-o then! I'll be back with yer grub and such."

He shot up from his seated position on Amy and walked briskly out of the room. He was just about to close the door when he popped his head in, "OH! By -the-by, I won't be leaving any guards around. So, if ya feel like running you can. But just remember, we have the food, we have the medicine and my men and I love ourselves a game of hide an seek."

With that he closed the door, leaving Amy lying on the floor stewing in her own resentment. She had been kidnapped for the fourth time in her life; and for the fourth time in her life she was unable to get out of it by herself.

The first time had been when Metal Sonic had kidnapped her when she was eight years old. Not as big a deal, she thought, she was just a kid, she didn't know how to defend herself and Metal Sonic was a pain to take down even for Sonic. The second time had been when she was twelve. She was just learning how to use her hammer and Sonic hadn't been there to help her with Zero or Dr. Eggman. Yes she'd been rescued by Gamma, which was great but after that she'd promised herself she would be stronger and more independent. The third time was almost inexcusable. Not even six months later and she was kidnapped by Eggman himself on the Ark at gunpoint. She'd almost gotten Sonic killed that time and she'd work her ass off every day since that incident to make sure she was _never_ in a position like this.

Yet here, she was, her fourth kidnapping in a country where it seemed everyone was out to get her and who knew what the hell they wanted her for and all she wanted was to go home and be with her friends and...

She could feel the tears dripping down the sides of her face and into her hair. She clenched her fists and, as much as she tried to keep it at bay, the shame and helplessness washed over her, fueling her anger and resentment, "WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!?"

In her anger she sat up way too fast and felt the sharp stab of her side acting up again. She looked down menacingly at the offending wound before she gave a deep, shivering sigh. She furiously wiped the tears out of her eyes and watched the blood stain more and more of robe, not particularly caring how much blood she was loosing. She was thinking through her options far too deeply to really see the bloom grow.

"It sucks," she finally decided, "And I hate it; but if I don't let this heal first I'll end up running from them while fighting off an infection. I could die if I do that and then I'll never get back home to Sonic..."

She felt a slight twinge in her heart at the mention of Sonic's name but set it aside, "I don't have time for that. It'll be better for me if I just play the game until I heal. While that's going on, I'll try to memorize the maps and gather information on where I am and where I'll be safest. Once I have all that, I'll disappear into the capitol and get this whole... mess figured out."

With that, Amy sat up properly with her legs crossed in front of her and began doing her deep breathing exercises, waiting on Rob to come back.

When he came back, he had a steaming bowl of stew with a few slices of bread on a tray for her. He also had Amy's backpack slung over his shoulder as he made his way in. Behind him was a golden furred bobcat woman with black stripes over her her cheeks with Amy's poultice in her clawed hands. Her hazel eyes regarded Amy with curiosity but mostly with compassion. Her chocolate brown hair was done up and back in a long braid curled up into a bun. She left some tendrils of her hair to frame her face and what hair was loose was thick and slightly wavy. Amy was grateful to see that when the woman opened the poultice she also put on a pair of gloves and handled the poultice with a sponge, as the doctor had before.

Amy had to smile when the woman turned to Rob and raised a brow. Rob looked in confusion for a moment before letting out a, "What?"

The woman shot him a deadpanned look before responding, "You know what you pervert!"

Amy was surprised by her voice. It was light and soft, almost welcoming despite the fact that she was insulting Rob. More than that her accent was very different. The lilt was there but rather than being earthy like Rob's it was more...

"What?" she thought to herself, "Refined? Poised? I don't know what it is but it's definitely different."

Rob rolled his eyes and sighed, "Marian, love, just tell me what ye want me ta do and I'll..."

"Turn 'round ye scabby dobber!"

Amy couldn't help but crack a smile. It was odd hearing a voice like that trying to say something that was so rude. Rob must have thought so too, because he gave a playful scoff before throwing up his hands and turning around. Then Marian, the bobcat, turned to Amy.

"Just lift the skirt and robe. I just want to dab this and pop the bandage on."

As Amy did as she was told and watched Marian work gently but quickly, she realized what it was that was different. Marian's accent was the closest she'd heard to her own accent. It was still different; a bit more lofty and it still stressed the vowels more but it wasn't as alien as everyone else's accents. Amy pondered this until Marian finished dressing her wound and carefully began to bandage it. She gave a smile and motioned for Amy to put her robe and dress down again.

"You're clear, Rob."

Rob turned back around and gave a smile, "There now, better?"

Amy simply glared back before he gave another laugh and set the tray down.

"Relax lass, this one ain't drugged this time."

Amy simply glared at him in disbelief again before she looked to Marian this time. Marian was staring at him as well before she pulled the tray closer to them.

"What my incredibly blunt and tactless friend is trying to say is that we're not trying to hurt you," she said wryly before taking a slice bread. She dipped the slice into the stew and took a bite, "See? Perfectly safe."

Even as Marian spoke, Amy looked on with distinct mistrust. She thought about simply refusing and saying she wasn't hungry. Her stomach, however, chose that moment to complain quite loudly. Amy winced in response and refused to look Marian or Rob in the eye before she began to eat. When she was about halfway through the bowl she murmured a small, "Thanks" through her mouth. When she did look up, she caught Marian and Rob exchanging knowing glances. This set Amy's hackles up and she immediately stopped eating. When she pushed the tray away, Rob gave a little sigh and sat in front of her cross-legged.

"Alright lass, here's the game. I'm thinking of something and you have 20 guesses as to what it is. I'll only answer yes or no questions though. So don't ask me to describe it. If ye guess correctly I'll let ye go and I won't chase after ya fer one full day. If ye lose, then ye have ta stay in yer room and do as I say fer one full day. No muss, no fuss, no buts about it, until the same time the next day and we'll play the game again."

Amy eyed him suspiciously as he closed his eyes and tried to think of something. Was the game really that easy? Just play 20 questions with him until she guessed correctly or ran out of questions? No riddles? No chess? No footrace?

Amy's thoughts were cut short when Rob opened his eyes and gave that ever familiar smirk, "Alright lass, ask away."

Amy raised a brow before asking, "Is it alive?"

Rob paused before answering, "Not like you and me. Nineteen."

"What?" she thought to herself, "That doesn't make any sense. It's either breathing or not... unless...?"

"Is it tangible?"

"No. Eighteen."

"Ah," she thought, "So it's an idea or a feeling."

"Is it important?"

"Not to a lot of people. It's very important to me, though. Seventeen."

"Is it in this room?"

"I'd like to think so. Sixteen?"

"Do I have it?"

"I dunno lass, do you? Fifteen."

"What does that even mean!?"

"Yes or no questions only lass. Fourteen."

Amy glared him down and clenched her teeth, "Hey that's not...!"

Amy paused a moment before she eyed Rob suspiciously, "...is it fairness?"

Rob gave a small clap and bark of a laugh, "Right-o lass, ya did it!"

Amy raised her eyebrow in confusion. Then Rob reached over and shook her head with his own gloved one. She flinched but when she wasn't pulled into another vision, she gave a sigh of relief before she felt herself getting pulled up.

"Alright lass a deals a deal!" he cried, "Here's yer things. Ye've got yer medicine, some food, yer clothes, yer maps, yer compass, everything ye need to survive in the woods fer a few days."

Amy put her pack on but she felt alarms going off in the back of her mind. Something wasn't right. It took until Rob led her to the door before she understood what.

"Now, ye guessed right, fairness is something I take very seriously, lass," he began, "And ye won the game against _me_ fair and square..."

When he opened the door, Amy saw two other mobians blocking it. One was a short, yet rather buff brown rat with his arms crossed and a mean look in his dark brown eyes. Next to him was a taller but equally buff quail with a smirk on his face and a lute strapped over his back. Amy's fists clenched when she realized exactly what Rob had pulled.

"And I'll keep my word, lass, if I see ya running fer the hills, I won't do anything to ye until tomorrow afternoon," he began with a small apologetic smirk blooming on his face, "But, er, these gentlemen here, they don't want ye te leave either. And, while, yes, I'm Rob o'the Woods, leader of the Merry Men, it ain't fair to make them watch ye leave when I'm the one that failed. So it's only fair that ye play a game with them as well."

Amy glared back at him but rather than bash his head in (as she so desperately wanted to do) she instead took a deep breath.

"One week," she told herself, "One week and my side will be better. Then I'll run them ragged trying to find me..."

When she opened her eyes, there was a fire in them. It made the rat flinch and the quail gulp. She then cracked her knuckles while addressing the both of them, "Alright then. Who's first?"

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><p>And there's chapter five! What do you guys think of Rob? How about the other merry men? Are you sick of the Scottish accents yet? I'm not! XD Likes? Dislikes? Let me know with your reviews!<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 everybody welcome back! Also, I have something here that may confuse some people. Timing wise, this is all happening about four months after the events of Sonic Unleashed a la comic books. I figure that's enough time for people to recover mentally and physically, reconstruct their homes, build up memorials, all that jazz. Maybe not completely build up, but enough that normal life can resume. The victory over Eggman was Sonic taking down Dark Gaia and putting the world back together piece by piece. If there's still any other questions please let me know and I'll try to clear any other issues up.

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><p><strong>New Mobotropolis<strong>

**One Week Later**

Sally looked on at the information that Nicole had given them, "What the heck is Eggman thinking?"

She was on Sky Patrol in the main meeting room. Her hands were running nervously through her hair as she read over the data on Eggman's latest plans. Sonic, Tails, Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine were in the room as well, looking on in a mixture of interest and worry. Big and Cream stood off to the side as well, looking on in interest and concern.

"What else would he be thinking?" Sonic asked as he leaned back in his chair, "How can I get that hedgehog to kick my butt harder this time?"

Sally's lips twitched with a smile while everyone else giggled, "A theme park though? In space?"

"He had one several months ago; before we trashed it," Tails commented with a smirk, "He's been pretty set on having one for a while I guess."

"I'm surprised the Docter had time tah build a whole new theme park," Bunnie said worriedly, "It's only been four months since we put the world back together."

"I'm surprised he didn't get done sooner," Rotor said, "I was sure he saved a lot more Dark Gaia energy for this."

"According to the United Federation's findings, he used quite a bit to reestablish his grip on the areas affected by Dark Gaia directly," Nicole answered, "The rest he spent on establishing himself in space. I don't know what energy type this is but it's definitely not from here."

"Chaos energy?" Sally asked.

"No... it's powerful but it's not that powerful," she said as she studied the readings, "And I'd recognize chaos energy readings if I saw them."

"Maybe what we need iz zeh closer look, no?" Antoine asked, "We take a tour of zee park for ourselves?"

"I'm with Ant on this one," Sonic said as he jumped from his chair, "How else are we going to find out what Egghead is up to?"

Even as sounds of agreement filled the room, Sally sat at the conference table with her hands folded together. She eyed the group of people deep in thought for a moment before she spoke.

"Normally I'd agree, but I'd like to know why the UF didn't decide to field this one for themselves," she said cautiously, "If we're going to do this, we're going to do this the right way. Sonic, you, Tails and A..."

She stopped mid-sentence but the damage had already been done. Immediately everyone's eyes were cast down and their confident smiles were turned into worried scowls. Sonic was the first to shake off the worried look on his face and replace it with an uneasy grin.

"Cheer up guys! You know Amy. I'm sure she's just really busy having fun with her family in the capitol or something," Sonic shrugged, "She's probably just been too busy to write."

Cream and Big gave Sonic sad, yet hopeful looks. They had both worked with her during the Metal Overlord crisis a couple years ago. They knew when she started something, she didn't stop until it was finished. Yet...

"I still wish she would write," Cream murmured as she hugged Cheese, "Nicole hasn't been able to connect with the communicator we gave her. I'm worried and I miss her..."

"Me too," Big said while hugging Froggy to his chest.

Oddly enough it was Antoine who stood up, "Now don't fret, mon amis! Amy is perfectly safe in Mercia. It ez a good place to be right now while she...eh..."

"Does her thing?" his wife supplied.

"Merci, oui!"

Sally nodded at this, "Father said something about a civil uproar going on but from what I can tell on his end, it's between the nobles rather than the people versus the governing state. I can't imagine why he would let her go on her own if he felt she couldn't handle it."

At this she stood, forcing her own smile on her face, "Sonic is right. We all love Amy, and we're all worried for her; but she's going to be okay. She's one of the strongest and most intuitive freedom fighters we have. I doubt a few hot headed noblemen are going to keep her from her goals. I know we want her here, but if she has something she needs to do, then we'll leave her to it and be there to support her when she needs it.

"With that said," she pointed to Bunnie, "I'm going to need you to take her place with Sonic and Tails. I want you three to be careful and stick together on this. If I have my way, then Sky Patrol will be close behind you up until you make it to the point of entry. Then we'll keep in close radio contact while you three get a closer look and figure out how we need to proceed."

Sonic gave a familiar smirk, "What's to think about? It's Egghead's park! We go, we take a look, we blow it up! Simple as that!"

Sally rolled her eyes even as a true smile bloomed over her worried one, "For now, let's just stick with figuring out what he's doing up there. Then we can figure out how to blow it up together. Hopefully by the time this is all decided Amy can join us for the final take down."

Cream gave another sad smile, "She would be pretty upset if we didn't let her help out."

"Maybe we can write her a letter to tell her what we're doing," Big suggested, "Maybe then she'll come home."

Everyone looked to Big for a moment then looked to each other with a smile. Bunnie was the one who said, "I think that's a great idea, Big Sugah. I'm sure Amy'll appreciate the thought. Let me help y'all with that and we can send the letters along for her to read."

Bunnie and Antoine left the room with a now excited Big and an optimistic Cream and Cheese. When they left the room, Tails addressed Sally.

"So, where is the point of entry?" he asked, "And what exactly is it?"

"It's a teleporter," Nicole answered, "It's in an Egg base just to the East of the United Federation borders."

Sonic paused before he gave a small amazed, "Huh."

"What huh?" Tails asked.

"I'm a bit disappointed in Eggman," he commented, "He's normally way more flashy about this sort of thing."

"What were you expecting?"

"I dunno, a space elevator or something?" Sonic shrugged, "Just something more in your face."

Rotor rolled his eyes as he stood, "I'm sure he's just focusing on his theme park getting built before he puts in a space elevator on the constantly spinning planet."

Tails barked out a laugh as Sonic glared at Rotor, "Ha ha, funny, Rote. I'm just saying, I was expecting more out of him."

Sally gave her own smirk, "Wait until you actually see the park first. Then you can decide if it's to his taste or not. For now we're headed back to the UF. Then our team and their team can hash out the specifics.

Suddenly Sonic's face became far more serious, "Wait, why are we working with them? Isn't the Eggman thing our schtick?"

"Normally yes," Sally said, "But they're the ones that gathered the information on Eggman's base of operations there. They're the ones that sent that information to us. They're the ones asking for our assistance."

"So they can't let us handle it?"

"I'm sure they have their own reasons for asking us to help, Sonic."

"Who's part of the team over there?" Tails asked.

"I'm not sure," Sally answered, "We'll find out when we get there."

"Well, if that's all," Tails said as he slid out of his chair, "I'm gonna go write a letter to Amy myself. You coming Rotor?"

Rotor nodded before hurrying out of the conference room. Sonic was just about to speed after them before he turned back to Sally.

"Race ya there, Sa..."

He stopped short when he saw the look on Sally's face. It was an odd mix of shame and fear he hadn't seen on her face since he'd asked Nicole to give her memories back almost half a year ago.

"You coming?"

"Hm?" Sally looked confused for a moment before she shook her head, "I... I'll write to her later. We're heading off to the UF again soon anyway. I'll write it while we're on our way..."

Sonic gave her an odd look before he started walking towards her, "I'm sure she'd be happy to hear from you, you know."

Sally gave a snort but didn't say anything. As far as Sonic was concerned she didn't need to.

"You don't think she misses you."

"I think she misses you more than she misses anyone really."

Sonic shrugged, placing a familiar smirk on his face, "What's not to miss? We're the freedom fighters, blue, brave and true! She'd want to hear back from all of us..."

Sally still didn't seem convinced. Her blue eyes shifted away from Sonic's trying to look anywhere but there. Sonic's smirk fell and a smaller, more concerned half smile took his place.

"What's wrong?"

Sally paused at that, her mouth open as though she were going to say something. Then she stopped and reconsidered. She finally took a deep breath before looking directly at Sonic.

"Did we drive her away?"

Sonic's eyes widened, "What?"

"Did we make her leave?" she asked again, "Is our relationship hurting her?"

Sonic stared at her for a minute before turning his head to the side and scratching it, "I... well... maybe?"

Sally released a shaking breath before Sonic looked at her again, "Look, Sal, I don't know what you want me to say. Yea, I'm sure that part of it is us but... that's not the only reason. Amy's got a lot to think about and... we gotta just let her do her thing, you know?"

Sally paused at this before she gave a weak smile, "I'm sure she hates me..."

Sonic gave a snort, "If she hated you, everyone would know. She doesn't hate you, she's just a little upset. She'll get over us. Then she'll figure out what's going on in Mercia. Once she's got everything figured out, she'll be back on the team swinging her hammer at every badnik in sight!"

Sally gave him a slightly teary smile, "I just hope she's okay."

"You know Amy," Sonic said as he pulled Sally into a hug, "She's always jumping into things. I do it all the time and I turned out okay! She will too. And if she isn't we'll all come running."

Sally smiled into his chest, "You're worried too, then?"

Sonic's smile faltered a bit before he shrugged, "She's always been there for me. I should try to be there for her too. It's just really weird that she won't let me this time."

Sally gave Sonic a loving squeeze before letting go. She looked him in the eyes and said, "I'm sure everyone feels the same way. I just feel guilty I suppose. I... don't want her to get hurt because she felt like she couldn't ask us to help her."

"Maybe you could tell her about it?" Sonic said with a hopeful grin, "I'm pretty sure it was you that said that communication was key to all relationships, right?"

Sally laughed and Sonic's smile grew. It was a genuine laugh that meant she was feeling better already. That was all he wanted really. When she gave a small nod, Sonic took that as his queue to sweep his princess off of her feet and race back to where the rest of the gang was. Sally's only protest was a small cry of surprise before she began giggling. Maybe she was worried over nothing. Amy was almost always okay. What was the worst that could happen?

* * *

><p><strong>Mercia- Unknown Noble Province<strong>

It took Amy one full week before her side had healed over. Over the course of the week she'd discovered just how intent these people were at keeping her in the building. The games always began in the afternoon, at the exact time she would have been allowed to escape. Usually it started with Thorn who brought her lunch and would give her a riddle to solve.

"If I had my druthers, I'd call fer a rematch," she grumbled once to Amy, "Rob says he wants me teh go easy on ye, at least until yer slasher's gone."

The riddles weren't particularly difficult. Amy had gotten it twice in the five times that week that Thorn had visited. If she lost, Thorn would smirk, take her dishes and leave Amy to her supposed misery. Then either Rob or, if she was lucky, Marian would come and give her dinner. If she won, however, Amy would have to take out whichever two guards were posted outside. She'd only managed that yesterday but found she was free to wander the fort until someone caught her and played another game with her. That time she had been caught by Munch, the rat that had blocked the door after her game with Rob. He had asked to arm wrestle with her. The quail, Alan, who was with him at the time had given him a dirty look. She remembered him shooting a look right back at him.

"Thas all I'm good at," he said with a smirk, "I won't hold back just 'cause she's a 'noble lady'. That's a stupid way ta think after what she pulled on Hovis and his gang. Even stupider when ya remember what she pulled with Thorn after waking up from that crap Jack gave her. She can handle it."

Amy couldn't help but feel gratified by that remark. It was dashed away when he beat her, but for a moment that day she was satisfied.

"Wait until I actually get to escape this place," she thought to herself as she studied her maps again, "Then they'll really see what I can do..."

Still, she was having a hard time figuring out exactly where in the country she was. She knew that her friends had dropped her off at the northern end of Mercia, in the Province of Spring Border. She knew that Spring Crest, the town she was in where she met Martha, was about a dozen miles northeast of the capitol Normont. She knew she'd been led southwest to the inn... but where they'd taken her from there was beyond her. Trying to find a safe place would rely completely on which direction she decided to run. And what direction she decided to run would depend completely on which direction had the least amount of resistance.

"Then regardless of where I run at some point I have to run south," she thought, "Tamworth is near the dead center of the country. I'm still pretty far in the north and these people know this whole country better than anyone else out there..."

Amy looked to her backpack with a small smile, "At least they gave me my stuff back. I don't have to wear that bloody dress anymore!"

She hugged herself and the new clean dress she had on lovingly. It was the same style of dress she normally had on. Amy then gave a wry smile before saying, "I'm going to have to go shopping at some point. I stick out like a sore thumb in this dress and the only other thing I have to wear are some evening gowns and pajamas..."

Her smile quickly disappeared when she began fingering the compass in her pocket. She gave a small, shaking sigh as she pulled it out and stared at it. She'd tried calling NICOLE so many times in the last week. Everyday, without fail, she would try to use the communicator. The results varied. More often than not she would be met with straight static. A few times she was met with a slight crackling noise. The last time she tried the communicator, however, it exploded in a shower of sparks. When that had happened her heart had stopped and she began to cry. Her side wasn't quite healed yet, at least not enough that she was comfortable with leaving. The communicator was her last connection with the other Freedom Fighters and her last hope in case all else failed. She was completely alone in a country where she would have to do god only knew what for these people...

She remembered Marian had come to deliver her dinner that time. Amy had quickly hid the compass at that point and tried to wipe her tears away. Marian had seen them however. There was an odd mixture of shame and understanding in her eyes before she set her dinner to the side and handed Amy a handkerchief.

"If it helps," she had said, "No one here is going to hurt you."

"Then what the heck do you need me around for?" Amy had shot back, a few stray tears trying to escape before she rubbed at them furiously.

Marian had paused in that moment before she sighed and sat in front of her, "I'll be honest with you... I can't tell you much. You will be going home at some point, just be patient with us. We need something from the king in order to survive the winter coming this year."

Amy's eyes widened, "You're ransoming me?!"

Marian nodded calmly in response to Amy's yelling, "We need money to fund our operations."

"By kidnapping people?!"

Marian's lip twitched in annoyance before she slowly got up, "Normally I'd agree with you. However, you've yet to meet the people we kidnap, or the nobles your uncle and the people 'contend with'."

That stopped Amy in her tracks before she handed the handkerchief back, "That doesn't make this right."

Marian gave a small snort before she turned away. Amy scoffed and rose from her seat to say something more. However, before she could say anything, Marian had already reached the door. Before she left, however, she said, "For what it's worth, you're probably the only 'victim' I've ever had that made me question this. If only for a moment."

When she closed the door behind her Amy stared on ahead, her fists clenched and her teeth grinding. Finally she let out a growl and summoned her hammer. She began going through her practice swings, trying to burn off all the rage. Amy trained this way until her muscles pulsed and her side began aching in warning. Even after her workout, she had a difficult time going to sleep that night.

The comment rankled even two days later. Even as she looked at her almost fully healed side, she couldn't gain any pleasure in knowing she was almost ready to escape.

"Ugh, she's worse than Sally!"

She immediately began to feel bad about that comment. How was she similar to Sally in the least? Amy gave a somber sigh before she put her map away and began to think about her earlier comment.

To be fair to herself, she was still angry with Sally and to a lesser extent Sonic. Sonic had set her aside yet _again_ to be with someone else. Sally, Mina, _Fiona, _God only know who else, but she'd been set aside so many times it hurt. That he would set her aside for Sally _again? _Here she was alone, in a country who had at every turn made her aware of how truly weak and out of her element she was, and Sonic was no where to be found.

But where did Sally come in with this?

Amy growled a bit before she looked out the window. It was almost time for the daily game. She looked down at her wound again and decided she would wait one more day before taking her plan into affect. So she sat on the bed staring at the door, wondering why the hell she thought Marian was like Sally.

"She's infuriating," she thought immediately, "And I don't think she means to be."

That was true. She remembered so many times in her life where Sally stood in the way of letting get what she wanted. From becoming a freedom fighter, to being Sonic's love interest, even just going to the Gala in the United Federation; Sally was always that annoying, know it all voice of reason that tried to get Amy to stop and think things through. What made it so much worse was that she was always right. After she was kidnapped that third time, she knew she wasn't ready to be an official Freedom Fighter, at least until she proved she could handle herself during the Metal Sonic incident with her, Big, and Cream together. Sonic had proved time and again he wasn't interested in her.

But even as she let her anger at Sally build up, a memory slid into the forefront of her mind.

She must have been about 8 or 9? It was a little after she had been saved from Metal Sonic and she had been welcomed as an orphan into the Freedom Fighter's base. She was scared, alone in a strange place. She couldn't get to sleep and she'd had nightmares any time she drifted off. She couldn't quite remember the nightmares themselves, but she remembered they were... potent. One time it was particularly bad, Amy couldn't remember what had happened but she'd woken up to someone humming for her and running their hands through her hair. Before she could wake up fully, however, the person had walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. It had confused her a bit as a child, but it wasn't particularly scary. As she grew up, all the way until she was about 10 years old, she would hear that humming from time to time. One time when she was passing through the halls at night to get a drink she heard the humming coming out of Tails' room. When she opened the door a crack, she saw Sally sitting by his bedside, running her hands through his hair and humming a very familiar tune.

"That was Sally..." Amy thought guiltily, "I know she's not all bad. She is the leader of the Freedom Fighters. Sonic does love her. She's sweet when she wants to be and knows how to handle almost any situation... why wouldn't he? That was pretty clear at the gala."

Amy groaned and placed her head in her hands. The gala and the day after had to have been to two worst days of her life. If it hadn't been for that vision, she wouldn't even be here. Hell, the visions themselves were so erratic they didn't even activate every time she was touched. Cream had hugged her goodbye, the dove at the inn dragged her to her room and the doctor and Marian had put on the medicine just fine. She hadn't even had a vision in her sleep since a week ago.

Immediately, Amy knocked on the wooden bedpost. She hoped she wouldn't have to go through it again, at least until she figured out why. At some point, she figured she would have to go to Deira. If, for whatever reason, King Liam didn't have any answers for her, maybe some old documents at her old home would have some? At least something that would give her some indication of what was going on and how to stop it.

"They were all wearing gloves," she thought, "They never touched my skin like Rouge did that first time... maybe if I just cover myself up more..."

Amy's thoughts were interrupted at the knock on the door. When Amy didn't say anything, the door opened anyway. In walked Marian of all people, rather than Thorn, who she was used to seeing every afternoon. Amy's eyebrows drew together at the sight of the bobcat. Today she wore a dress; rather light in fabric but a dark chocolate brown with bronze embroidery around the hem and cuffs of the sleeves. It cinched in just under her breasts and was a modest square neckline.

"Something like that would be nice," Amy thought to herself offhandedly, "When I get out of here, I'll have to buy something like that. Maybe I'll find a boutique or something in a village nearby..."

Marian looked to Amy with a sense of mild guilt flitting over her eyes. It didn't seem to last long as her shoulders squared and a smile was planted on her face. She set down the tray of stew and two cups of water on the table in front of Amy. She then shut the door behind her and sat in the chair beside the table, "Good afternoon, Amy."

Amy glared at Marian a moment before crossing her arms, "Where's Thorn?"

"I'm afraid she's unavailable at the moment."

"Kidnapping more people?"

"In a sense," Marian smiled coyly before taking a sip out of one of the cups, "You're not the only project we're working on at this time. Hungry?"

Amy's glare deepened. Maybe it was the fact that besides the earlier look, Marian wasn't sorry about the fact that she kidnapped people for a living. Maybe it was because she looked like she was more than happy to do so in the first place. Maybe it was because one more day of playing games and eating soup _again _just didn't sit well with Amy, "No thanks. Not hungry."

Marian shrugged, "As you wish. Now, for our game...

Amy continued to glare at Marian before she turned away and closed her eyes, "I don't want to play today. Bye!"

Marian sat there staring in shock before she gave a small sigh, "Amy..."

"No. Don't bother. This is stupid and we both know it's stupid. Rob doesn't want me to leave. I get it. I'm not going to leave until he says it's okay. Great. Congratulations, my spirit is broken and I'll sit here and wait like a good little kidnapped girl. You happy?"

Amy felt neither broken nor complacent and her face spoken volumes to that effect. Marian gave another sigh before holding out her hand for Amy, "Please, I understand..."

"Like heck you understand!"

Without thinking, Amy swatted Marian's bare hand. Amy immediately regretted the decision as she felt both herself and Marian being pulled into a vision.

As Amy looked around, she realized she was in an old, crowded city. There were people pressed together as tightly as possible and murmurs, cheers and chatter rang happily through the crowd. Amy turned to her right to see Marian staring around in disbelief. Amy realized this was her first time experiencing a vision too.

"I hope she vomits," she thought to herself cruelly before moving forward and leaving Marian behind. Still, her ears twitched in both annoyance and recognition when she heard Marian coming up behind her. When Amy turned she felt a twinge of guilt for Marian. Her eyes were wide in shock and her hands shook in fear. However, her shoulders were squared up and her head was held up loftily. Her hands were clasped together softly but firmly and she seemed to glide behind Amy as though nothing would shake her. Amy knew she was scared, but she was going to face it head on. Amy couldn't help but feel a bit impressed by this.

"She's still a kidnapper," she thought to herself, "I still don't trust her."

With that thought firmly in her mind, she continued forward through the crowd and between the tall stone-walled buildings before finally reaching a large road. There was a parade going on, with carriages being pulled by mobians and marching bands pulling through. Amy looked on in confusion as she watched it go by, getting the sense that she would have to stay here to see what was going to happen. She felt Marian approach her from the right side before she heard her speak.

"This is Tamworth," she said, "I haven't been here in years but I recognize it. So much has changed it seems."

Amy didn't say anything. She chose to marvel at the spectacle before her instead. People in the close-knit buildings around her were throwing flowers and confetti into the streets. People were calling out to sell sweet breads, candies, and other goods to the eager crowd. Children and adults alike clamored to see the parade together. Amy couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, "Maybe this one won't be so bad after all..."

Then her ears picked up an ecstatic cry from just down the road. The cry began to flow closer and closer to her until she saw it. She immediately groaned and placed her head in her hands in disapproval, "Spoke too soon..."

It was the sharp intake of breath beside her that made her remember she wasn't alone in her dreams again. When she dared to look up again, she saw a large open-faced carriage that held five hedgehogs inside. Three of them were children, although Amy recognized one of them. The boy from her first dream was a bit older now, but not by much. He held himself regally, a miniature of his father standing just behind him in the carriage. On either side of him were two girls, one decidedly older than the other. The oldest was maybe 7 or 8 years old and held herself every bit as regally as her brother beside her. Here eyes were a pale jade green but her fur had her father's coloring. However, her hair fell like her mother's and there were pale pink stripes flying through her hair. She held a shy smile and offered dignified waves to the people around her. The little girl beside her, however, was waving like a maniac beside her. She was about 4 years old with blazing red eyes and a wide and infectious smile. She was the picture of her mother, however she was a slightly darker, dustier shade of pink and the tips of her quills were a darker magenta, giving her hair an almost umber effect.

"I guess that's Maria and Elaina..." she thought to herself with a shiver, "They're cute but... Shadow? Really? Why?"

Still she stood there patiently, allowing herself to be lost in the thrill of the crowd before Marian spoke cautiously, "You have a beautiful family."

Amy rolled her eyes at that, "Ya, no. That's not my future. I've already talked with Shadow, that's not going to happen."

Marian looked confused before she looked back to the family, "I'm sorry you feel that way. You seem quite happy there, however."

"Ya well, yuck it up while you can. I don't want anything to do with this," Amy said with no small amount of disgust, "The family is beautiful, but my future is somewhere else. Anywhere else but Mercia."

It was as though those were the magic words that broke the spell. There was a gasp, then a series of screams broke out through the crowd. Amy's attention was brought back to the carriage that had stopped in the middle of the road. Suddenly there were four hedgehogs with their backs to them and one very familiar bobcat that stood just outside of the crowd.

"For the one true king!" Future-Marian cried out before trying to disappear into the crowd.

Try being the operative word. The bobcat had never tried to outrace the Ultimate Life form. Amy felt a wave of fear and heartache crash over her when she saw the look on Shadow's face. Tears flowed freely down his face, but his eyes were piercing crimson gateways to hell. His fists clenched and he launched himself forward into the crowd. In a flash of light he was gone and appeared again before the bobcat just within the crowd. He grabbed her fiercely before teleporting once more into the street. There he held her by the throat while she struggled to escape. His hands clenched harder around her throat with each passing second, ignoring or possibly fueled by the cries of his children mourning their dead mother. Amy heard one last thing before the vision began to fade.

"I sentence you to die," he ground out, even as his voice shook with his own loss, "In the name of your one true King."

Marian watched with wide eyes as her future self's neck was broken and her form crumpled in the street. Amy could only see herself, her dead form with three knives protruding at various points in her chest. Her blood flowed freely and her eyes were vacant, even as her children cried for their mother to wake up. She had died. She was going to die if she stayed here. If she became queen of Mercia she was going to die a terrible, sudden death in front of her children and husband for God only knew why.

Run.

The vision faded and she was back in her room at the fort. Marian was in shock, shaking with the weight of what she had seen. Amy wasn't too far behind her.

_Run._

Amy looked her her backpack and shouldered it. She felt distant, as though she were watching another identical pink hedgehog take her things in hand and eyed the door slowly. She looked to Marian once more, who was beginning to cry and just shake harder. Her future murderer had watched herself die.

_RUN!_

Amy suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline course through her veins like a tsunami. She didn't care about anything anymore. She ran past Marian and pulled the door open in one swift movement. She ignored the two guards at her door. She didn't even see who they were. All she cared about was that they were friends of her murderer. She defied their cries to stop. She ran down a the first set of stairs she saw. She ran all the way to the bottom floor, barreling past anyone who tried to stop her. She ran into the courtyard, faster than she'd ever run in her life, past the army of people trying to keep her away from safety, away from sanity, away from life. She ran past the gates, even as they were trying to close. She ran for what felt like hours before she felt a cramp seize her thigh and toppled her to the ground. She rolled for a moment before she hit an old, shallow ravine. She lay there, allowing herself to cry deep, shaking sobs out to the universe.

She had to leave Mercia. There was no other way. She had to get the hell out of Mercia before the forests killed her. Still she lay there crying, allowing the spasms of fear and grief run up and down her tired body. She stayed that way for a solid 20 minutes before she heaved one last shaking sob. It was only then that she became aware of her surroundings. She knew she fell, but the ravine around her was shallow and the dirt was oddly forgiving. When she gingerly began feeling for injuries, she was relieved to find only slight bruising on her arms where she fell. She slowly, shakily forced herself up and searched the ravine for a place to hide. When the ravine revealed nothing, she gave a small, forced sigh before she began trying to climb the ravine.

She froze very suddenly when she heard a distinctly male voice cry out, "Are ye alright now?"

Amy refused to answer. More than anything she wanted to run again, but her muscles were frozen in place, mid-way up the ravine. She stayed that way for a solid 20 seconds before the voice called out again.

"I'm getting closer to the ravine. I'm not armed, I swear it on me wife and four children."

"Stay away!" Amy cried out suddenly, "I... I'll hurt you! If you get any closer I swear!"

"I promise not to get near you. I just want to get into the ravine. I'll leave some supplies there and be on my way if you prefer. But I really would feel better if you came with me so my wife and I can look after ye proper."

"Why?" Amy asked fiercely, "So you can kidnap me again? So you can ransom me or worse?"

There was a pause before Amy heard the man toss something into the ravine. Several somethings, actually. She saw a knife land in the ravine, two apples, and a rope that went up the walls of the ravine. Finally the voice said, "That's the only weapon I have between me and my family. I won't hurt you. I won't take you anywhere you don't want me to be. I'm no fighter, but the village we live in is pretty large. You'll blend in much better there, lass. I won't touch ya. I just want to lead ya ta safety. If ya don't feel comfortable with following me, the village is about a mile to the east of here. My family's house is just on the outskirts of the town. I don't know whatcha look like. I don't get involved wit politics or bandits or nothin'. Our home is always open to wary travelers. If ya still don't feel safe then just take the knife. You seem ta need it more than I do.

"Now... I'm walkin' slowly back east. Where my house is. With my wife and three boys and the one girl. Whenever yer ready... if ya wish..."

Amy listened carefully as the man left, but when she only heard one set of footsteps she was confused. She looked to the knife and apples below her and continued to listen until the (deliberately?) hard stomping footsteps became whispers in the distance. Finally when she couldn't hear him anymore, she lowered herself into the ravine again and eyed the apples warily. She looked to the knife, a very well cared for piece that had been polished and sharpened numerous times. Eventually, after sniffing one apple experimentally, she put it carefully into her backpack and used the knife to cut into the other one. She realized she was starving when she took her first bite. Still, she handled the apple with cautious, shaking hands, eating one slice at a time. When she made it to the core, and realized she felt no ill affects, she felt a small sense of relief. She twitched her ears to and fro before she touched the rope experimentally. It was taught but secure. When she didn't hear anyone else but the odd twittering of local flickies around, she grabbed the rope and hauled herself up. When she was out of the ravine, she hastily took in her surroundings, trying to see anyone hiding up in the trees or out in the distance. Finally she took a shaking breath and brought out her compass.

"East to the village?" she thought, "Can I trust him?"

The small, logical part of her brain screamed distantly to avoid all towns and roads. Just keep running until she either keeled over from exhaustion or found Tamworth to the south.

The voice from her heart, told her something that surprised her.

"The man seems nice," it said, "You won't last out here without help. Go see his family. At least return the knife."

She'd only heard that voice a few times in her life. Once when she met Gamma, who had helped her escape Eggman's flying ship. The last time when she met Shadow alone in the Space Colony Ark. The voice had never steered her wrong before.

"And if it's just a trap?" she asked herself.

"I'll be caught either way," she thought to herself, "I can't last like this forever..."

After a few moments of mulling the issue over, she heaved a deep shaking sigh and headed east.

* * *

><p>Ok! Sixth chapter! So, just to let everyone know. I understand if Amy seems like she's sort of on a rail allowing things to happen to her. Please have patience with this. World building is pretty difficult and I want Amy to be able to find her place in a world that's isolated and essentially building itself as I go. Amy will be doing stuff next chapter I promise. As for the rest of the Freedom Fighters- I'll be checking in on them at least once every chapter. So don't worry- Amy and the things going on with the FF are not forgotten. ;3<p>

Please read and review and let me know what you think! See ya next week!


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